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Date Posted: 18:28:40 07/24/12 Tue
Author: IMRD
Subject: July 25, 2012 news

http://www.manilatimes.net/index.php/news/top-stories/27629-aquino-s-responsible-parenthood-quip-explained

Aquino’s responsible parenthood quip explained
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Published on 25 July 2012
Hits: 85
Written by Jaime R. Pilapil and Llanesca T. Panti Reporters
THE most applauded part of President Benigno Aquino 3rd’s speech on Monday was when he mentioned responsible parenthood, but Malacañang clarified on Tuesday
that what the Chief Executive had in mind should not be misconstrued as the controversial reproductive health (RH) bill being pushed by some lawmakers.

While RH bill proponents in the House of Representatives and Senate gave the President a standing ovation, Palace deputy spokesman Abigail Valte said that people should not be confused because Mr. Aquino was talking of a different bill that will help reduce population growth.

“The President is against abortion. This is a reiteration of the President’s position that he has, time and again, enunciated even when he was running for president. Second, the President is in favor of giving couples the right to choose how best to manage their families so that in the end their welfare and that of their children are best served,” Valte said.

She added that the President is of the position that the state must respect each individual’s right to follow his or her conscience and religious convictions on matters and issues pertaining to the unity of the family and the sacredness of human life from conception to natural death.

“In a situation where couples especially the poor and the disadvantaged ones are in no position to make an informed judgment, the state has the responsibility to so provide. And, lastly, in the range of options and information provided to couples, natural family planning and modern methods shall be presented as equally available,” Valte pointed out.

Priority
In his State of the Nation Address (SONA), Aquino endorsed as priority measure House Bill 4244 or better-known as Act Providing for a Comprehensive Policy on Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health, and Population and Development.

“We are ending the backlogs in the education sector, but the potential for shortages remains as our student population continues to increase. Perhaps responsible parenthood can help address this,” the President said, receiving a thundering applause and a moment of standing ovation.

The main difference of the President’s pet measure with the controversial RH bill is that the Palace took into consideration the dialogues that officials had with members of the Church and also with members of pro-RH advocacy groups.

The Catholic Church is against the bill.

The President submitted as a priority measure in the 112th Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac) meeting the draft bill of the administration which has been consolidated with the six pending bills in Congress sponsored by Representatives Edcel Lagman of Albay province, Janette Garin of the First District of Iloilo province, Arlene Bag-Ao and Walden Bello of Akbayan party-list, Rodolfo Biazon of Muntinlupa City, Augusto Syjuco of the Second District of Iloilo province, Luz Ilagan and Emmi De Jesus of Gabriela party-list.

Valte further clarified that members of Congress are free to have their own interpretation of what was said by the President.

“But the President did mention responsible parenthood and that refers to the version that the Palace submitted during the Ledac and to the one that was consolidated.”

Party stand
At the Lower House, allies of the President prodded members of the Liberal Party to follow his stance in pushing for the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Bill.

Representatives Ben Evardone of Eastern Samar province and Teddy Brawner Baguilat of Ifugao province made the call a day after Aquino’s SONA.

“The party leadership should take a stand. The President, the chairman of the party, has already spoken. It is about time that we adopt that as a party stand,” Evardone, chairman of the House Public information panel and a member of the Liberal Party, said during the weekly Ugnayan sa Batasan News Forum.


http://manilastandardtoday.com/www2/2012/07/25/bishops-saddened-by-pnoys-rh-slant/


Bishops saddened by PNoy’s RH slant
By Vito Barcelo | Posted on July 25, 2012 | 12:11am | 6 Comments

The Catholic Church on Tuesday expressed disappointment over President Benigno Aquino III’s reference to “responsible parenthood” in his State-of-the-Nation Address, and even though he did not mention the reproductive health bill that remains pending in Congress.
In a statement, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines said the RH bill was disguised as a health measure but was actually a population control program that ran contrary to the Church’s stance against artificial contraception.
“We are deeply saddened and disappointed about it,” CBCP-Episcopal Commission on Family and Life executive secretary Melvin Castro said.
The Church said the Aquino administration should focus on good governance and address poverty instead of listening to “dramatic allegations” about the increase in maternal deaths.
In his third State-of-the-Nation Address Monday, Mr. Aquino mentioned “responsible parenthood” while talking about a shortage of textbooks and classrooms.
“We are ending the backlogs in the education sector, but the potential for shortages remains as our student population continues to increase. Perhaps responsible parenthood can help address this,” Mr. Aquino said in an apparent reference to his administration’s watered-down version of the RH bill.
While the remark drew loud applause from the supporters of the RH bill, Mr. Aquino said nothing more on the topic.
But Castro chided the President for using population control as a solution to the challenges facing the education sector.
“We do not see any connection between the education problem and the RH bill or his responsible parenthood because these are about promoting and funding of contraceptive usage,” he said.
Despite the lack of a clear endorsement by the President, a Liberal Party lawmaker on Tuesday called for a party vote in support of the RH bill.
Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone urged the party president, Manuel Roxas II, to call a special meeting of the 87 LP members in the House as a response to the President’s “support” for the bill.
“The party leadership should take a stand,” Evardone said.
“I think it’s about time to take a party stand because the President has already expressed his support for the measure. It is a major policy statement.”
Earlier, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said the RH bill would still have a chance of being passed, and even though Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II had said time was running out.
Evardone acknowledged that lawmakers were having a difficult time passing the bill because of the heavy Church lobbying against it, and with elections set for next year.
A group supporting the RH bill on Tuesday said there should be no further delay in putting the contentious bill to a vote.
Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development Foundation Inc. director Rom Dongeto said the President’s endorsement of responsible parenthood in his address Monday was “a strong message” for legislators to act on the bill.
“This poses a challenge to the leadership of the Senate and the House of Representatives to put the RH bill to a vote after Aquino’s endorsement of the responsible parenthood, which is equivalent to the reproductive health and responsible parenthood measures pending in both Houses of Congress,” Dongeto said.
He said passing the bill was even more urgent with the increase in the maternal mortality rate and in teenage pregnancies. With Maricel Cruz and Macon Ramos-Araneta


http://www.tribune.net.ph/index.php/headlines/item/2004-noy-playing-safe-on-rh-earned-mostly-rebuffs


Noy playing safe on RH earned mostly rebuffs
• Written by Pat C. Santos
• Wednesday, 25 July 2012 00:00
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President Aquino’s ambiguous one-liner to refer to the controversial bill on population control in his State of the Nation Address (Sona) the other day earned criticisms rather than approval from the Church which he is trying to appease but it failed to impress the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) which expressed regret over it.
In an official statement posted in the CBCP website, Fr. Melvin Castro said it was clear that the proposed reproductive health (RH) bill or Aquino’s version of it called responsible parenthood is not about health but about birth control.
“We are ending the backlogs in the education sector, but the potential for shortages remains as our student population continues to increase. Perhaps Responsible Parenthood can help address this,” was the only part in the Sona where Aquino referred to the bill.
Deputy presidential spokesman Abigail Valte said the President particularly wanted a consolidated House Bill 4244 to be passed by Congress even before the electoral climate steps in.
Valte described HB 4244 as the consolidated version of six other legislative bills on the controversial reproductive health. The consolidated version has a new title too — Act Providing for a Comprehensive Policy on Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health, and Population and Development, and for other purposes.
Aquino’s inclusion of “responsible parenthood” in the Sona was not an endorsement to Congress of the approval of the controversial reproductive health (RH) bill as it was, in effect, a different measure coming from Malacañang.
“It was a safe advice. It was an advice. It was not an endorsement. I’m sure he was playing it safe because he does not want to offend both sides, all sides. He played it the way it should be. Who can go against responsible parenthood?, No one,” Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III said.
“I think it was a very wise move. It was a very wise statement, he was playing it safe,” said the Senate Majority Leader, pointing out that the matter of “responsible parenthood,” when it was presented to them during a Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) meeting in the past, was a bill different from RH.
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile practically seconded Sotto’s assertion saying that Aquino’s statement was interpreted as “his desire to the extent that we can accommodate it, we will accommodate it but if not, we will say, ‘we beg your pardon’.”
“That is his wish list. I have dealt with many presidents. They have their own wish list. They are operating within a democratic setting. They know that everything is a subject to be debated,” said Enrile in an interview with reporters.
“The President knows that all legislation is open to debate. He knows that since he came from both the House and the Senate,” Enrile said.
The two Senate leaders do not even consider it as a pressure, coming from Malacañang, to have the RH bill which remains pending in both chambers, approved in the present 15th Congress.
“We are deeply saddened and disappointed about it,” said Castro, executive secretary of the Episcopal Commission on Family and Life of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.
In his third State of the Nation Address, Aquino laid out his administration’s programs in addressing the problems besetting the education system such as the shortage of textbooks and lack of classrooms.
The President has repeatedly said that his responsible parenthood policy is for a comprehensive health care for women and not a population control.
Castro said Aquino’s latest pronouncement has only affirmed the Church’s concern that the RH bill is nothing but a population control bill “disguised” as a health measure.
“They’ve got so many excuses. In the end, it is about population control,” said Castro was at a Family and Life Conference in Antipolo City when Aquino delivered his third Sona.
Castro also chided Aquino for using population control as the solution to the challenges that the education sector is facing.
“We do not see any connection between the education problem and the RH bill or his responsible parenthood because these are about promoting and funding of contraceptive usage,” he said.
Contrary to reports of Philippine population explosion, he said that data from the National Statistics Office and the Population Commission show that there is a “downtrend” in the population growth rate.
“There’s something wrong with the President’s thinking and his solution to the problem,” added Castro.
The CBCP and even many health experts are strongly against RH bill because of its provisions that promotes the use of contraceptives which they deemed were “abortifacients” or cause abortion. With By Fernan J. Angeles and Angie M. Rosales


http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/367262/rh-bill-puts-aquino-church-on-warpath


RH Bill Puts Aquino, Church On Warpath
By LESLIE ANN G. AQUINO
July 24, 2012, 7:20pm
MANILA, Philippines --- A Catholic prelate on Tuesday said President Benigno S. Aquino III virtually declared an open war with the Catholic Church when he endorsed responsible parenthood or the Reproductive Health (RH) bill in his State-of-the-Nation Address (SONA) last Monday.
“Aquino declared an open war, a head-on collision against us and against the Catholic Church. So terrible, so blatantly Aquino missed the point,” Lipa, Batangas Archbishop Ramon Arguelles, said in an interview.
“We in the pro-life movements are so disgusted with these vigorous pronouncements in support of responsible parenthood a.k.a. RH bill,” added the former vice-chairman of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines Episcopal Commission on Family and Life (CBCP-ECFL).
While Catholic bishops assailed Aquino’s SONA, particularly on reproductive health, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) expressed satisfaction over Aquino’s direction and the national government’s commitment toward the continuing peace process in Mindanao
Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte likewise defended President Aquino’s SONA, saying it is not the end all and be all of the Aquino administration’s governance.
Sen. Loren Legarda said Aquino’s SONA was a comprehensive, clear, targeted, and detailed outline of what has been accomplished because of its policy reforms and priority projects.
Legardasaid she was glad that measurable goals for the coming years were also mentioned in the SONA ‘’because now we will have a way to gauge how efficiently and effectively the administration has performed, and how gains can be sustained and how the targets can be achieved.’’
In his SONA, President Aquino drew the longest applause when he said that “responsible parenthood” is the answer to the long-standing backlogs on schools, books, and other needs for education.
Arguelles, however, contradicted the belief of the President, saying the real machine that will keep the country’s economy going is the robust population and the serious education of the youth.
“His selective ‘matuwid na daan’ (straight path) program shows its real face: clearly negated by the promotion of death policies his claimed mind is baluktot. Time is essential. Our camp must act now,” he said.
Sorsogon Bishop Arturo Bastes, member of the CBCP Permanent Council, for his part, said the President’s remark on responsible parenthood is a bad omen for what the Catholic Church stands for.
“PNoy is undermining the moral force of the Catholic Church,” he said.
‘We have to move our people to vigilance and teach more our congressmen about the dangers of the RH bill,” added Bastes.
Malolos Bishop Jose Oliveros, meantime, asked President Aquino to listen to the voice of the people if they are really his boss.
“PNoy has credited the Filipino people as his bosses for the changes made by his administration. Now, he is imposing to the Filipino people his own stand on the RH bill. He should listen to the voice of the majority of our people who are Catholics,” he said.
“I think he is listening more to the external voices like that of the present US administration. This is in contradiction to the theme of his SONA. I would not want to be responsible for what RH bill would bring to our people,” added Oliveros.
The Catholic Church has been opposing the RH bill convinced that it is anti-life and family due to its promotion of artificial contraceptives as a family planning method. The Church is for natural family planning.
MILF Vice Chairman for Political Affairs Ghadzali Jaafar, meanwhile, said the President’s assurance that the peace negotiations will continue and that the decades-old Mindanao conflict is now nearing resolution have sent positive signals for the peace process.
“We’re praying to Allah that all these will be realized soon and result to a genuine and lasting peace here in Mindanao,” he said in a radio interview in Koronadal City.
Jaafar said the MILF remains hopeful that a peace agreement will eventually be reached with the Aquino administration following the success of last week’s formal exploratory talks in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Valte, in a press briefing yesterday, said it does not mean that those that were not mentioned in the SONA were less of a priority.
“Hindi ibig sabihin na ‘di nabanggit ay hindi inaaaksyunan, ‘di ginagalawan. [It doesn’t mean that no action was taken if it was not mentioned in the SONA],” she said.
“SONA is not the end all and be all of the President’s governance,” she stressed.
Valte also defended the statistics given by President Aquino on crime rate.
Some criticized the President’s SONA because it contained crime rate figures in the past years though reports revealed that there was an increase in total crime volume for the first half of this year, particularly in Metro Manila, wherein there was a 36 percent increase in total crime volume, from 18,672 in January to June 2011 to 29,231 for the same period this year.
Valte, however, said crimes in other areas of the country had declined.
“It does not mean that the President is not aware of the state of the nation, far from it. Pinapakita ng Pangulo kahapon yung general downtrend na bumababa yung crime rate, especially in particular areas [The President was showing that there is a general downtrend in the crime rate in particular areas],” she said. (With reports from PNA, Madel R. Sabater, and Mario B. Casayuran)

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