YOUR insights on the reproductive health (RH) bill will now have a permanent site in cyberspace.
Dubbed “CBCP for Life,” this online portal was launched last May 25 to provide a “blow-by-blow” coverage of the RH bill’s proceedings in Congress, along with regular “legislative updates” through the social networking site Twitter.
Msgr. Pedro Quitorio, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines media office director,said position papers promoting family and life, written by various institutions and individuals, even outside of the Catholic faith, would also be posted in the online portal (www.cbcponline.net).
Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez, chair of the CBCP commission on public affairs, invited people opposed to the measure to express their sentiments in the website.
“This becomes an opportunity to give their side of the story. Even pro-RH supporters can visit this site and give their sentiments,” he said.
The portal includes a photo gallery of pro-life rallies and activities, as well as sound and video clips of interviews with legislators provided by Radyo Veritas and other media outlets.
The launching of “CBCP for Life” also served as an opportunity to discuss the population and birth control bill.
Other guests who rejected the measure included Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz, Zambales Rep. Mitos Magsaysay, Pro-life Philippines founder Sr. Pilar Versoza, RGS, Eilleen Esteban of Youth Pinoy, and Carlos Antonio Palad of Filipinos for Life.
Cruz said the bill implied that sexuality was a disease that needed a cure.
“In the RH bill, it says that contraceptives are essential medicines. It implies that human sexuality is dangerous. [The bill] simply means that sexuality is not only dangerous, but it is also a disease that needs to be cured,” Cruz said.
For Versoza, instead of pushing for the bill’s passage, the government should focus on engaging the youth in recreation to keep them from vices and unwanted pregnancies.
Magsaysay said Magna Carta for Women already addresses the healthcare needs of women in the country.
Esteban said the CBCP portal could educate the public, especially the youth, on the truth about the RH bill.
“The youth make their decisions from the information they get. It becomes a bandwagon for those pro-RH bill supporters. It becomes the kernel as to why many of the youth support the bill. It is now hard to separate values formation and the rearing of the Church,” she said.
“Aborsyon hindi solusyon sa paglago ng populasyon!”
What we see in the standpoint of the RH Bill is mainly an act for the illiterate and nothing more. RH Bill is a solution that simply states that this nation surrenders from the fact that illiteracy has taken over majority of the nation’s families, and that we consider an act of abortion, contraception, etc. to somehow make it to a safer zone. Pros look at the problem as “population growth”, but what about the other side of the situation? What about life? What about the discipline, the education, the free will to choose? Until now we live up to the belief that contraceptives will solve the problem, but what we do not realize is that it stops more than just one thing which makes a whole different story, and apparently, we ignore. Save what is rightfully saved, and please, think wisely about where the nation’s money should be spent upon. Supply condoms for millions of men or supply education for millions of families. We were given a life, and so were those children conceived.. but unborn. NO ONE HAS THE RIGHT TO TAKE AND DECIDE THAT A LIFE GIVEN BY GOD SHOULD BE STOPPED RIGHT BEFORE A CHILD SEES THE WORLD MADE FOR HIM.