Mayor won't oppose church's teaching on repro health
DAVAO City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte vowed not to oppose any church's teaching regarding reproductive health.
During his appearance in Pastor Apollo Quiboloy's show "Give Us this Day," the mayor faced scrutiny on his stand on the provisions of reproductive health.
Asked what he teaches newlyweds when conducting group weddings, he admitted of lecturing them on responsible parenthood.
Duterte then added he has "no intention to do against any religious institution in his promotion of family planning to the city's poor."
"I don't want to quarrel with the church, or with any church for that matter. Kami ni Inday (Vice Mayor Sara Duterte and I) we follow the government policy. It's not my policy or Inday's. The government must look into the interested in the people and know what's good for the people," Duterte said.
"But when we solemnize marriages, we impress upon the couples they have to be responsible parents. I am frank enough to say, you (the couples) are the trees of the forest. Your children should be reared, protected, and given education. You raise them as good citizens of the country," Duterte said.
To do this, the couples should be responsible of the family they're going to build by practicing family planning. But to what method they are going to do "is entirely up to them."
"If you want to follow the church's teaching, then so be it. If you want to practice the alternative, okay. But on the nth time, ayaw ko talaga ang abortion. It's not only a crime, it's against faith," Duterte said.
Duterte cited a time when he and the vice mayor visited a rural area where the childbirth rate was quite high.
"There was one child whose face was very dirty. Inday asked where was his mother and a woman said 'She's off somewhere'. Then Inday asked who was taking care of the kid and the woman said 'I am'. They had 15 kids in the family. Inday asked how the children are fed. Then they said the first five eat in the morning, the second five during lunch, and the last five has to wait for dinner.”
"I could immediately sense her frustration and me, I just pity the human being," Duterte said the vernacular.
Duterte then plugged that the government offers financing of ligation procedures.
"We give P5,000 for free, the P2,000 goes to the doctor, and they get to keep the P3,000," he said.
Quiboloy, however, remarked that the church can help in feeding the poor, to which the mayor did not reply. (JCZ)