Groups call for pro-RH votes in May

MANILA, Philippines - Various groups that lobbied for the passage of the Reproductive Health (RH) law in Congress convened on Wednesday to urge the electorate to exclusively vote for pro-RH candidates this May.

The Purple Vote campaign led by former Department of Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral, is "to ensure that those who will be elected in the mid-term elections in May will safeguard the full and unpurported implementation of the RH Law," Philippine Legislators Committee on Population and Development media officer Dabet Panelo said in a statement.

Recently prompted by the Supreme Court's 120-day halt order on the law, the group said the controversial measure "continues to face the same challenges it had during its enactment," which lingered in both houses of Congress for over a decade before it was signed by President Benigno Aquino III last December.

Vocal RH advocates such as Beth Angsioco from the Socialist Women of the Philippines, Judy Miranda from Partido ng Manggagawa, Red Tani from youth group Filipino Freethinkers, Frances Chua from Catholics for RH and doctor Junice Melgar from Likhaan also represent the coalition.

Pro-life groups opposing the measure have long set in motion similar campaigns such as "Catholic Vote Philippines" calling for citizens to elect only politicians and political aspirants who have expressed disapproval of the RH law.

New York-based group Human Rights Watch, meanwhile, decried the high tribunal's decision to delay the implementation of the law, whose rules and regulations were drafted this March.

“The Supreme Court is putting an untold number of women and girls at unnecessary risk," Human Rights Watch Asia director Brad Adams said.

Adams added that the measure's objective was to address health risks faced by women, who "have waited and suffered long enough."