RH Bill advocates using tactics of Satan—Vicar General

SAN PABLO City, April 27, 2011?The second highest leader of San Pablo diocese has expressed dismay that high ranking people who promote the controversial Reproductive Health Bill (Responsible Parenthood Bill) are employing the devil tactics of deception to lure unsuspecting Filipinos to favor its passage into a
law.

Msgr. Melchor Barcenas, Vicar General of the San Pablo Diocese, Laguna Province
told this writer he cannot believe that President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino and
the Congressmen pushing for the approval of the bill do not know that by its very nature Reproductive Health and Reproductive Rights is endorsing first and foremost “the right to legal or safe abortion.”

Barcenas knew that by definition “reproductive rights may include some or all of the following: the rights to legal or safe abortion, the right to birth control, the right to access quality reproductive healthcare, and the right to education and access in order to make reproductive choices free from coercion, discrimination, and violence.”

The Monsignor talked to this writer right after he presided the meeting of the officers and members of the Diocesan Pastoral Council (DPC) in behalf of San Pablo Bishop Leo M. Drona who is presently attending the quadri-centennial celebration of the Archdiocese of Tuguegarao.

Our enemy in fighting against RH Bill (otherwise known as House Bill No. 4244 the proposed Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health and Population and Development Act of 2011) is not the person (RH proponents) endorsing it but
Satan who is behind them and seducing these people to spread the lies and make
people believe that abortion is not allowed in RHB.

Drona earlier said similar thing about the RHB during an Interfaith Rally in San Pablo City last March that in our present fight against the RHB, our real enemy is Satan.

“In this fight against RH Bill, our true enemies are not the people (who proposed it) but Satan. It is the evil that is manipulating the minds of all (pro RH Bill Congressmen) or those higher ups in the world. This is the reason why it is difficult to fight this enemy,” the prelate admitted.

He said this issue about the RH Bill is not only the concern of Catholics (Christians) but of all Filipinos of good will.

Meanwhile, Diocesan Family Life Director Fr. Jerry Oblepias has expressed his doubts whether President Aquino has studied thoroughly the controversial Reproductive Hill bill (RHB) when he said in public that “I’m against abortion” but at the same time strongly pushing for the approval of the bill.

“Perhaps the president does not know the whole content of RH Bill. He said that he is against abortion perhaps just to appease the Catholic hierarchy,” Oblepias said.

“My (humble) advice (to our President) is to understand that Easter is a celebration of life. And (my advice) to those who support the RHB, they don’t deserve to celebrate Easter (because) it may be an outright contradiction (if they do so),” Oblepias concluded.

The CBCP (Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines) has said that although the RH Bill’s title has been changed from Reproductive Health (RHB) to Responsible Parenthood Bill (RPB), investigations made by Catholic experts showed that the contents of the two bills are all the same. (Fr. Romy Ponte)