Sotto: Catholic vote affected polls

MANILA, Philippines - Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III yesterday disputed claims by some sectors that the Catholic vote did not affect the results of Monday’s elections.

Sotto said the Catholics were discouraged to vote for Reproductive Health (RH) law supporters, who were bypassed by Senator-elect Grace Poe in the number one slot.

Senators Loren Legarda, Chiz Escudero and Alan Cayetano voted in favor of the RH law. It was also reported that the Catholic laity comprised 90 percent of the electorate and voted as a block to protect their values.

Sotto noted that Catholics openly campaigned for anti-RH supporters like Senators Koko Pimentel, Gringo Honasan, Cynthia Villar, Antonio Trillanes III, and JV Ejercito, who are all within the winning circle based on unofficial and partial election results.

“They’re lying again when the PLCPD (Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development Foundation, Inc.) said there is no Catholic vote,” said Sotto, who opposed the RH law in the Senate.

“After lying about the ill effects of their pro-RH tools, pills and injectibles, they’re now lying about the birth of the Catholic vote in the country,” he added.

He also noted that to say that the people voted for 94 percent of pro-RH candidates in the last polls is to misread the results and the temper of our times.

“If there is no Catholic vote, why did the foremost exponent of the pro-Reproductive Health movement who carried the torch for the RH law during the campaign landed in the lower-half among the 33 senatorial candidates this elections?” Sotto added.