Albay priests hit RH measure

LEGAZPI CITY – Msgr. Lucilo Quiambao, bishop administrator of the Diocese of Legazpi, offered a concelebrated Mass with some 35 diocesan priests and members of religious orders to protest the reproductive health and population development bill pending in Congress.

The Mass was also attended by some 3,000 members of various Catholic organizations as well as students, nuns and seminarians.

Qiambao, in his homily, called on the participants to pray and offer sacrifices for the cause of life and the Filipino family by helping prevent the passage of the bill into a law.

“May the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, through the intercession of Our Mother of Salvation move us all to support and defend life and the Filipino family as well as inspire our legislators and leaders not to pass the RH bill,” said Quiambao.

Quiambao through a Diocesan Circular No. 29 called the attention of the Catholic faithful that once the bill is passed “it will cause an exponential rise of more cases of abortions by abortifacient contraceptives that, among other things, prevent the implantation into the uterine wall of human life formed after conception.”

He argues that the bill “will encourage promiscuity, deceptively termed as ‘safe sex’ among young people through an aggressive condom- use campaign and an ultra-liberal sex education program that has no respect for traditional Filipino and Christian family values, thus, potentially increasing the cases of unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases especially HIV/AIDS, changing the moral and cultural mindset of the young Filipinos as regards family values and sexual practices.”

“The Reproductive Health and Population Development Bill once approved will be allotted around P3 billion from taxpayers’ money for the funding of abortifacient contraceptives, sex education, reproductive health awareness campaigns and other programs that promote anti-life, anti-family agenda to the detriment of more legitimate health concerns and poverty reduction programs,” the pastoral letter said.

Quiambao added that “in view of this, we need to show and convince our legislators in Congress that we will not allow the forces of the culture of death to reign supreme in our land.”