Be Open to 'Honest-to-Goodness' Dialogue, Angara urges CBCP

MANILA, Philippines — Senator Edgardo Angara on Friday encouraged the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to be open to an “honest to goodness” dialogue on the salient points of the reproductive health (RH) measure that is now being pushed in Congress.

Angara urged both camps, the Catholic Church and advocates of the bill, to avoid making hasty judgments and just resolve the issue through a healthy debate.

“In my opinion, having an honest to goodness dialogue about this controversy is a step in the right direction,” Angara said.

“However, when one side simply refuses to listen to the other, it becomes counterproductive. We must conduct a multi-sector consultation, and arrange for a proper, balanced dialogue so that the people are able to hear all of the arguments,” he said.

Angara likewise warned both parties to use the media to instigate a proper dialogue rather than using them as a venue to issue threats and insults against each other.

“I have been around long enough to know that these kinds of issues will never die down if the parties involved keep using the media irresponsibly. Why not enlist the help of the press to instigate a proper dialogue?” he suggested.

Citing his province, Angara said Aurora was able to successfully adopt its own reproductive health program without facing threats of excommunication as the officials in his province as well as the prelates opened themselves to an open discussion of the matter.

“We started by making this kind of information available to the women of Aurora – the single women, the wives, the mothers. We helped them with their family planning, how big they wanted their family to be, and how to achieve this without going against their religion,” Angara said.

“Fortunately, the church leaders in Aurora didn’t hinder our efforts to teach the people by threatening us, or them with excommunication,” he explained.

To settle the issue, Angara stressed the need for cooperation and willingness to compromise, with the concept of excommunication set aside.

“Simply put, excommunication shouldn’t be an issue yet, since we’re still trying to consider all the possible repercussions of this bill for different groups. At this stage, mentioning such a severe penalty becomes a very effective debate-stopper,” he said.

Earlier, Angara rejected the Catholic Church’s stance to threaten President Aquino and any of its flocks with excommunication if they continually support the use of contraceptives as an option for family planning.

But Angara said it is already a “sin against God” to use such argument as an excuse to hinder the measure from being heard publicly.

Hannah Torregoza, Manila Bulletin