Sunday, July 24, 2011
The gathering was aimed at "making noise" before President Benigno Aquino III delivers Monday his second State of the Nation Address (Sona).CEBU CITY -- More than 2,000 people attended the prayer rally against the Reproductive Health (RH) bill at the Basilica del Sto. Niño Pilgrim Center Saturday afternoon.
Manila-based pro-life speakers also encouraged the people to join the fund-raising campaign to buy vehicles that bishops would use in their services for the poor.
"We want to send a clear message to the president. We have to remind him, we are also his boss," Bullecer said. He was referring to Aquino's last Sona where he called citizens "his boss."Dr. Rene Bullecer, Human Life International country director, said pro-life advocates are expecting that the Sona of President Aquino would include a statement of support for the RH bill.
Materialistic
In Metro Manila, Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) President Nereo Odchimar warned President Aquino against encouraging the "secularist and materialistic spirit" behind the RH Bill.
The country's population is expected to reach 95 million at the end of the year, but those opposing the bill say legislating population control will not solve poverty at all.
Among the bill's more controversial provisions are mandatory sexual education for children and teens, regular purchase and distribution of artificial birth control means by government agencies, and mandatory treatment of post-abortion complications at government health centers.
Participants of Saturday's rally in Cebu included the Association of Women Religious of Cebu (AWROC), Council of the Laity and Catholic Faith Defenders.
Similar activities are scheduled in different parts of the country, including Tagbilaran City in Bohol Province, Dipolog and Pagadian City, in the run-up to the Sona, said Dr. Bullecer.
Former Manila mayor Lito Atienza, a guest speaker at the Solidarity Rally, said the recent controversy on the vehicles donated to seven bishops by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) was an "attack against the Church" for opposing the RH bill.
"We must defend our church hierarchy," he said.
Management
"The solution to poverty is good management, inspired leadership and equal opportunities for all. If we have a good government in place, we do not have to destroy the womb of the mother and prevent births," he added.
Atienza, who is also National Coalition for Family and Life convenor, said the fund-raising campaign for the purchase of vehicles has already raised P2.5 million and that he has received two vehicles from TV host Willie Revillame.
The project will be launched at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral Sunday.
Lawyer Romulo Makalintal told people not to be dissuaded by those who question the propriety of receiving donations without asking about the source of the funds.
"To these people (I say), if a sinner cannot give donations, then none of us can give donations because all of us are sinners," he said.
"It is not the amount that you are going to give (that counts), what we want is to show our unity," he added.
'Include God'
Bullecer and Council of the Laity president lawyer Paterno Acabodillo told Sun.Star Cebu their groups are supporting the campaign.
For Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma, nothing will deter the church from its campaign against the passage of the RH bill.
He pointed out that legislators have complained that the pro-life group's protest should not include issues on morality and religion.
"We are told not to include God, that this is a matter of the separation of church and state," Palma said in his homily during the pro-life rally's closing mass.
"I do not agree that God is not part of the (RH) discussion, that God has no place in the debate, the teaching against the RH bill. Our life comes from God," he added.
The RH bill isn't the only issue President Aquino is under pressure to address in Monday's Sona.
Dennis Abarrientos, spokesperson of human rights group Karapatan-Central Visayas, said people's organizations will hold a "parallel Sona" in downtown Cebu City to protest Aquino's "inaction" against political persecution.
"He squandered the chance of being the reverse of (former president Gloria Arroyo)," Abarrientos told Sun.Star Cebu Saturday.
Change
Political prisoners, including six in Central Visayas, started a hunger strike last Friday.
"It has been over a year since (Aquino) took the reins of power from the much-despised Arroyo regime, but nothing seems to have changed beyond the transfer of power," read a statement of political prisoners in Central Visayas.
In his one year in office, Aquino has shown "no concrete policy for the respect, protection and fulfillment of human rights," human rights groups led by the Asian Federation against Involuntary Disappearance said in a statement.
The groups lamented that Aquino has yet to make a clear human rights program that is needed to end "the culture of impunity" in the country.
They also called for the unconditional release of political prisoners and detainees. There are 67 political prisoners in Visayas, according to the Task Force Detainees of the Philippines.
According to Karapatan-Central Visayas, 54 individuals in the region have been arrested illegally since June 2010.
"We want him to craft a concrete action plan in eliminating political killings and persecution," Abarrientos said.(Sun.Star Cebu)
Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on July 24, 2011.
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