MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino does not understand how the debates on the Reproductive Health (RH) bill has gone way beyond the limits of rational and factual discourse when the government has no policy on the number of children couples must have, and has not imposed birth control methods on anyone.
Speaking in Bangkok last week, Aquino said the state is against abortion and does not dictate the number of children a couple may have.
The state gives couples a choice of what option to take, he added.
Aquino said the state has the duty to remind parents that they have an obligation to their children.
The state can set up separate natural family planning clinics, and agrees with the Catholic Church that values must also be inculcated in sex education, he added.
Aquino said a 16-year-old girl whom he met in the slums of Tondo already had two children, and that she and her husband, who is of the same age, had no job.
“They should have enjoyed life,” he said.
Aquino said some couples have been having many more children than they could afford.
In the process, they have deprived their children of the education that they deserve.
Aquino said the state is focused on the welfare of the children.
“My security man told me that he wants to enroll his children in school, but that the tuition is expensive,” he said.
Carandang to bishops: Let’s debate
Presidential Communications Secretary Ricky Carandang has urged the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to a debate over the RH bill pending in Congress without resorting to civil disobedience.
“This is a debate on an issue of national importance,” he said.
“There is room for debate, but it doesn’t have to degenerate to illegal acts or anything like that.”
Archbishop of Lipa Ramon Arguelles said the government can put them all in jail.
“We are willing to pay the price to save the unborn from modern Herods and save the executioners from the grasp of the evil one,” he said.
Former CBCP president Archbishop Angel Lagdameo called on the Catholic faithful to wait and see as he emphasized the need for both sides to be calm, reasonable and consider the moral aspect of the issue.