Lacson’s RH bill to reward couples with 2 kids

MANILA, Philippines—Limit your children to two and you will be rewarded, according to a version of the reproductive health (RH) bill filed at the Senate.

Senator Panfilo Lacson’s Senate Bill No. 2768 lists a variety of incentives for couples that would keep an “ideal family size” and for local companies that would manufacture or import condoms and other forms of contraception.

Under the “population management” program included in Lacson’s bill, couples are “encouraged” to limit the number of their children to two. In exchange, these children “shall have preference in the grant of scholarships at the tertiary level.”

As for companies manufacturing RH “commodities,” they stand to enjoy “personal and corporate income tax exemptions for three years from the start of their operation,” or three years from the time the bill is passed into law.

They will be given “access to low-interest-bearing and concessionary capital loans from government banks” as well as “reduced tariffs” whenever they import the “commodities.”

Another version of the bill filed by Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago classifies contraceptives as “essential medicines.”

These include “hormonal contraceptives, intrauterine devices, injectables and other safe and effective family planning products and supplies,” Santiago’s bill states.

Crackdown

The RH bill, which seeks to provide couples an informed choice in planning their families, has generated tension between the pro and anti camps.

The latter warns that while the measure does not endorse abortion, it would allow the entry into the country of some contraceptives with abortive functions.

The Roman Catholic hierarchy in the Philippines has begun a crackdown on lay groups backing the controversial measure, the first target being the Catholics for RH Bill Speak Out Movement (C4RH).

In a statement, Tandag Bishop Nereo Odchimar, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, said the Church did not recognize C4RH as an authentic Catholic association in accordance with canon law because “it espouses and supports a stand contrary to the magisterial teachings of the Church.”

“Any Catholic who freely identifies himself or herself with this group gravely errs,” Odchimar said.

But he did not say that C4RH members were at risk of excommunication, a penalty meted by the Catholic Church on lay dissenters.

“The uncompromising stand of the Church to uphold the dignity of the person and to protect and respect the life from conception to natural death has always been the constant teaching of the Church.  Public espousal of measures that directly undermine these nonnegotiable principles of the Catholic faith is a sharp wedge that cuts the unity of the Church,” Odchimar said.

50 signatories

In February, C4RH issued a letter addressed to the Catholic Church in the Philippines expressing support for the RH bill. It said the rejection of the Church’s stand on the bill “does not make [one] less Catholic.”

The letter had about 50 signatories, the prominent ones being the New-York-based philanthropist Loida Nicolas-Lewis; former Health Secretaries Alberto Romualdez Jr., Jaime Galvez-Tan and Esperanza Cabral; former Interior Secretary Rafael Alunan III; former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Felipe Medalla; Commission on Population executive director Tomas Osias; Gabriela Representative Luzviminda Ilagan; Inquirer columnist and University of the Philippines professor Michael Tan; and tour guide Carlos Celdran.

C4RH is coorganized by the Forum for Family Planning and Development (FFPD).

Part of its letter reads: “We are Filipino Catholics who value life.  We all serve the same country, the same people and the same God. Therefore, supporting reproductive health should unite rather than divide us as a Christian people.

“We need to join hands for this national legislation that will significantly improve the lives of our people. This is not about politics or religion. This is about responsible living and happy lives. This is about believing that each of us should have the chance to live a healthy, happy and dignified life, a Christian right we are all entitled to.”

No dissonance

In its website (https://www.forum4fp.org/html/catholics-for-rh-speak-out-movement.html), the FFPD says that C4RH’s mission is “to bring Catholics into full harmony with their faith and realize that there is no dissonance with their being Catholics and simultaneously believing in the advocacy and goals of reproductive health and rights.”

The FFPD includes former President Fidel Ramos; Washington SyCip, chair of the Asian Institute of Management’s board of trustees and governors; and Commission on Population member Mercedes Concepcion.

The other organizers of C4RH are the Leadership Development for Mobilizing Reproductive Health; Leadership for Empowerment, Advocacy and Development Network; and Health Action Information Network.

The FFPD is C4RH’s media coordinator. LEADNet acts as the secretariat.