MANILA, Feb. 25, 2015—A Catholic priest has expressed joy over the proposed law filed recently by pro-life legislators seeking the repeal of the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) Law.
In an interview, Fr. Jerome R. Secillano, pastor of Nuestra Señora del Perpetuo Socorro Parish, told CBCP News the bill’s filing is good news not just for the Church but for every Filipino who values life and supports efficient spending of government funds.
Not helping poor
“Any Filipino who thinks that RH Law is the country’s best defense against poverty should by now realize that the enormous amount of money to be spent in procuring condoms, pills, and other anti-reproductive equipments are not directly helping the poor bail themselves out of poverty,” he shared.
The priest, who also serves as executive secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP)’s Permanent Committee on Public Affairs (PCPA), stressed what the Filipino poor urgently need are government interventions that will provide them jobs, good education, livelihood projects, and other income generating programs which are both effective and sustainable.
‘RH lie’
“The government’s claim that the RH Law is actually pro-life is not only absurd but a lie. How can it be pro-life when the funds are used not to buy food for the hungry, shelter for the homeless or medicines for the sick and the dying?” Secillano asked rhetorically.
According to him, the pro-life congressmen’s initiative to file for the repeal of the RH Law is a noble gesture of correcting a legislative flaw that erroneously treats population as a major threat to our country’s development.
“More so, this RH Law Repeal Act sees the poor as persons with dignity and not just mere actors that can be prevented from populating our country,” he added.
Pro-life solons
House Bill 5373 or the “RH Law Repeal Act” was filed Monday, Feb. 23, by
Reps. Jose L. Atienza, Jr. (Party List, BUHAY), its principal author, Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez (1st District, Leyte), Jonathan A. Dela Cruz (Party List, ABAKADA), Aleta C. Suarez (3rd District, Quezon), Victor C. Ortega (1st District, La Union), Philip A. Pichay (1st District, Surigao del Sur), Diosdado Macapagal Arroyo (2nd District, Camarines Sur), and Lani Mercado-Revilla (2nd District, Cavite) to “address positively the problem of severe poverty affecting a great number of Filipino families.” (Raymond A. Sebastián/CBCP News)
