[bg|5572|4|110|sort|8|#FFF|1|Youth called to act vs RH bill]
July 20, 12:26 a.m. – THE CAMPAIGN against the Reproductive Health (RH) bill heated up on campus Tuesday afternoon, as the Church kicked off activities marking the 43rd anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae (On Human Life).
The activity, participated in by more than a thousand students from 18 different schools, discussed the negative aspects of the RH bill and sought increased awareness of the youth on the issue.
With the theme “Kalakbay Patungo sa Kapunuan ng Buhay at Pamilya,” the forum that started at 1:30 p.m. focused on the value of a person’s life as a “gift from God.” Organizers called on the youth to “write to their respective congressmen” to reject the RH Bill because it violates human life.
Theology professor Richard Pazcoguin of the Institute of Religion noted that young people are the “targets” of the bill.
Zambales Rep. Mitos Magsyasay, on the other hand, said the RH bill is no longer necessary because the contents of the bill are already in the Magna Carta for Women, enacted in 2009.
Magsaysay said the Magna Carta requires the government to provide prenatal and post-natal care for women, instructions on family planning methods, information on birth spacing, and necessary care to prevent sexually transmitted diseases.
“We passed a law [addressing maternal healthcare] already, but the government failed to implement the provisions of the Magna Carta for Women,” Magsaysay said.
Msgr. Juanito Figura, secretary general Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, also said “there’s no need for a new law” because there are government agencies mandated to provide the necessary services, like the Department of Health and the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
“Let them do their work responsibly, and there’s no need for an RH bill,” Figura said.
Magsaysay said teenage women should value themselves as they are worth more than a packet of condoms. Pazcoguin, meanwhile, told male teenagers to be responsible and “not to give in easily to sexual urges.”
The celebration ended with the simultaneous sounding of bells in all parishes in Manila, and a procession from the Santisimo Rosario Parish to España Boulevard at 6:00 p.m., the “Hour of the Unborn.”
“We see the lay people at the forefront trying to bring the moral order of Humanae Vitae to our society, which is becoming more and more perverse with regard to the sanctity of life and family,” said Theology professor Aguedo Florence Jalin, Jr., a member of the Humanae Vitae core group.
“I think the forum at UST is a strong statement of the lay people, consisting of students, professors and parishioners, in making an advocacy for the sanctity of life and the inseparability of the fruits of marriage, which are unitive and procreative,” he added.
Participating students include those of UST, De La Salle University–Taft, Lourdes School Quezon City, Santa Catalina College–Legarda, Letran College–Intramuros, Philippine Normal University, St. Jude Academy, La Consolacion College Pasig and Valenzuela, San Beda College, St. Mary’s College of Quezon City, Assumption College Makati, Cainta Catholic School, St. Paul Quezon City, Technological University of the Philippines, and Ateneo de Manila University. Daphne J. Magturo
