Time for talks on RH bill over, CBCP tells Aquino gov’t

MANILA, Philippines—The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has had it.

In a press conference on Tuesday, CBCP secretary general Msgr. Juanito Figura announced that the bishops no longer saw any reason to further undertake a “serious study and dialogue” on House Bill 4244 with the government of President Benigno Aquino III following his declaration to implement his own five-point agenda on responsible parenthood.

“House Bill 4244 and President Aquino’s five-point responsible parenthood agenda are deemed to be basically the same,” said Figura, reading a statement written by bishops who were supposed to be part of the focus group discussion with executive officials suggested last March.

“We don’t take his public declaration against President Aquino,” Figura averred. “It is his privilege as president…we simply take it as a clue that the dialogue on RH issues would not yield any further positive results.”

In its last meeting with Malacañang in March, the CBCP agreed to form a team that will take part in a focus group discussion to study and discuss the mandated RH bill, which is now called the Responsible Parenthood bill.

Cavite Bishop Luis Antonio Tagle, chair of the CBCP Episcopal Commission on Doctrine of Faith, Parañaque Bishop Jessie Mercado, chair of the Episcopal Commission on Laity, and Antipolo Bishop Gabriel Reyes were designated to compose the CBCP group.

But the three bishops were a no show at the scheduled meeting on Tuesday with Malacañang. Figura and CBCP legal counsel Jo Imbong attended, but only to deliver the bishops’ message that effectively brought the dialogues to a close.

The CBCP ostensibly heeded an earlier call from senior prelates, including Cebu Archbishop Emeritus Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, who stated that it was futile for the Church hierarchy to continue talking with Malacañang when its head had already made up his mind on the issue.

But in putting an end to the dialogues, Figura clarified that the CBCP was not putting itself in a position against Malacañang, or the other way around. “We are simply making a position just as any other stakeholders in the issue,” Figura told reporters on Tuesday.

In a speech during the 100th commencement exercises at the University of the Philippines in Diliman last month, Mr. Aquino said he confidently believed that a program of responsible parenthood would be passed into law.

Mr. Aquino stated that he was aware of those opposed to the family planning measure—which upon many revisions was renamed to responsible parenthood bill—but as a leader of the country, he would risk excommunication “to reach out to all sectors.”

Figura said Mr. Aquino’s speech “substantially changed the direction” of the CBCP and prompted bishops to finally decide against any further talks on House Bill 4244.

In its final meeting on Tuesday, Figura said Malacañang expressed its desire for the Church hierarchy to keep its communication lines open. But he was “non-committal” about it, said Figura.

“It is the bishops’ decision and they will have to talk about it in the next plenary council meeting,” he added.

In the bishops’ statements relayed to executive officials Tuesday, they reiterated that they reject the bill as the “good provisions” of the family planning measure were “inextricably interwoven” and packaged with the “bad provisions.”

The good provisions include building hospitals, maternal and children’s healthcare and rights of the poor, education, among others, they noted. They regarded portions of the bill seeking to promote and legalize contraceptives as means for population control as “bad provisions.”

“Deemed provisions also are those that seek to establish a mindset and a value-system that are secularist, materialistic, individualistic and hedonistic in the guise of development and modernity, but which in effect are hostile to human life, family and religion,” the bishops stated.