Priest: DOH order shows RH bill not needed

A MEMBER of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said there is no need for the Reproductive Health (RH) bill as shown by the issuance of the Department of Health (DOH) of an order containing provisions similar to the controversial measure.

CBCP–Episcopal Commission on Family and Life (ECFL) Executive Secretary Fr. Melvin Castro said Sunday that the DOH Administrative Order 2012-009 is one more proof that the RH bill is not needed anymore since the department is already capable of addressing the supposed problems that are to be solved by the bill.

“May utos na ang secretary ng DOH. Ito na yun. Hindi ko alam kung ano pa yung gusto nilang isabatas e. Ito na ang gusto nilang gawin e,” said Castro.

While they also do not agree with the provision of the artificial method of family planning, the priest said it is a clear proof that the RH bill is unnecessary.

“Pero it only goes to show na hindi kailangan ang batas kung gusto ng Executive Department. Ginagawa na nila ito matagal na. Ito finormalize na ng DOH kamakailan lamang,” said Castro.

Last June, Health Secretary Enrique Ona announced that they will allocate P500 million to finance family planning commodities and supplies in community health centers.

With this, the CBCP official called on lawmakers to instead focus their time and effort to legislate other laws that can help the Filipino people.

“We are calling on lawmakers to allocate their remaining time to just work on legislations that can really help the people,” said Castro.

This was amid the recent call of Akbayan National Chairperson Risa Hontiveros to lawmakers that they should just push for the passage of the RH bill instead of pushing for Charter Change.

The CBCP has been the strongest opponent of the RH bill, citing the measure’s being anti-life since it promotes the use of artificial methods of family planning. (HDT/Sunnex)