Sen. Miriam Santiago looks to Jesus in plugging for RH bill

Invoking liberation theology, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago on Monday said a concrete law that would protect women and children from “unspeakable poverty” is a strong argument for passing the controversial reproductive health (RH) bill.

“Liberation theology sees Jesus’s message as a call to struggle against the social forces of oppression. The present struggle for an RH Act to protect the health and quality of life of mother and child in the context of unspeakable poverty in the Philippines is part of (this),” Santiago said in the first installment of her sponsorship bill titled “Primacy of Conscience in Catholic Theology.”

Santiago authored the RH bill in the Senate that, together with the bill’s version in the House of Representatives, has generated much controversy in this predominantly Catholic country.

Santiago said the Church should exercise a “special option for the poor and show them a loving preference” by not opposing the bill.

“Jesus himself was radically open to women. Jesus was a revolutionary who accepted women as equals, and rejected any use of God to perpetuate patriarchal or hierarchical relationships,” Santiago said.

“Upon his resurrection, Jesus appeared first to women, thus sending a message. It was, and still is, the message of love,” she concluded.