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Thursday, March 10, 2005
Arroyo stands by Ligtas Buntis campaign
President Arroyo downplayed yesterday reports that the Catholic Church will excommunicate government health workers promoting the Department of Health’s (DOH) Ligtas Buntis 2005 program.
“I don’t think promoting responsible parenthood is ex-communicable. I don’t think that’s true. (But) I’m not the Pope,” she said, eliciting laughter in a news conference at the provincial environment office near Cebu City’s Pier 3 yesterday.
“I’m a devout Catholic and I’m promoting responsible parenthood, preferably the natural family planning methods,” she added, standing by the DOH campaign amid opposition from Catholic Church heads.
Ligtas Buntis 2005 is a house-to-house information campaign on family planning methods to allow couples to have an “informed choice” on which birth control methods to use.
The campaign also targets “secondary” clients, including teenagers as young as 15 years old, and allows them to learn about fertility and the human reproductive system.
As if to assure government health workers, who may be torn between public service and their religious beliefs, Arroyo said many countries teach other kinds of population planning methods, but she has not heard of their health workers getting ex-communicated.
Earlier, DOH 7 maternal and child health care head Suzette Entera told Sun.Star Cebu that some health workers in Bohol reported they were refused communion by some priests as a sign of opposition to the campaign.
Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal has not discounted the possibility of ex-communication, although he said that would require the approval of all bishops.
He also advised the program’s health workers not to accept the sacraments, saying they are placing themselves in a “state of sin” by participating in the campaign.
The study “Population-Poverty Nexus: The Philippines in Comparative East Asian Context” said that had Filipino leaders introduced policies to control the country’s population growth, the number of poor Filipinos would have been 6.3 million less in 2000 alone. (CYR)
(March 10, 2005 issue)
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