SOME 70 government officials from 25 provinces in the Philippines have formed an alliance that will promote “reproductive health” and population control.
The Local Legislators’ League for Population, Health, Environment and Development (3LPHED) aims to create policies at the municipal level that will support pro-choice bills filed at the Senate and the House of Representatives. The league was formed by the Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development (PLCPD), the congressional counterpart of 3LPHED.
“The establishment of 3LPHED only shows that legislators are dead serious to push their ‘anti-life’ agenda. It only shows that there is an effective opposition to their advocacies in the national level, because they do not need to form (the 3LPHED) if they find their crusade easy,” Agoy Descallar, Pro-Life Philippines’ advocacy officer, told the Varsitarian.
Recently, the Population Commission, a population policy-making agency of the National Economic and Development Authority, resolved to promote only modern natural family planning methods, eschewing artificial contraceptives, some of which have abortifacient effects.
Among the league’s priority is the passage of House Bill 3773, or the Responsible Parenthood and Population Management Act by Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, which promotes the institutionalization of contraceptives, ligation, and two-children policy.
Other legislators who joined ‘3LPHED’ are Gabriela Party-list Rep. Liza Masa, author of the proposed Women, Girls and Gender Education Act and Gender Education in the Workplace Act; Nueva Ecija Rep. Josefina Joson, principal proponent of the proposed Magna Carta for Women; Akbayan Party-list Rep. Etta Rosales, main author of the Anti-Discrimination Act; and Sen. Rodolfo Biazon, author of the proposed Reproductive Health Care Act and Integrated Population and Development Policy Act.
“We are still studying our actions toward their movement, but definitely, we are going to block their initiatives,” Descallar said. Nathaniel R. Melican
