CBCP Family Life Commission Launches Project ARMADA
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines through its Episcopal Commission on Family Life (ECFL) launched “Project ARMADA” as part of its campaign to oppose House Bill 4110, or the Reproductive Heath Care Act, which is set for deliberation on Oct. 7 in the executive session of the Committee on Health of the Lower House.
ARMADA, or the Army of Mary Against Death and Abortion, was launched on Oct. 3 at the CBCP in Intramuros, Manila, with a press conference presided by Archbishop Paciano Aniceto of San Fernando, Pampanga, ECFL chairman.
HB 4110, filed mainly by Rep. Bellaflor Angara Castillo of Aurora Province and co-sponsored by some 52 other congressmen, is seen to be gaining headway to the plenary level. It has been noted that with the campaign takeoff for the May 2004 elections already fast approaching and occupying the attention of most legislators, the bill’s proponents are going all-out in a last-ditch effort to steer it past the Lower House before yearend lest the bill be sidelined by the election campaign.
According to legislative procedure, any bill pending or not passed into law at the conclusion of the three-year term of the incumbent members of the Lower House automatically gets written off and, if refiled in the next congress, reverts to phase zero.
Telly Farolan Somera, ECFL consultant, said ARMADA intends to match the timing and is set to launch concerted campaigns to thwart any further progress of the bill.
Archbishop Aniceto also warned that the Church would not relent on its effort even as far as pressing President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to use her veto power should the bill reach her level.
In her State-of-the-Nation Address (SONA) at the July 28 opening of the third regular session of the 12th Congress, President Arroyo declared her strong pro-life stance. “Pro-life pa rin ako. I will veto any bill that will try to smuggle in abortion,” the President declared in her address.
The Church’s main objection to the present bill, ARMADA declared, zeroes in on its abortifacient content which it said contravenes the constitutional guarantee that the State “recognizes the sanctity of family life and shall protect the family as a basic autonomous social institution” and “shall equally protect the life of the mother and the life of unborn from conception.”
ARMADA described HB 4110 as anti-women, anti-children, anti-family, anti-poor, and anti-society “because it indirectly seeks the legalization of abortion which is presently prohibited under the laws of the land, by concealing the real meaning of ‘reproductive health.”
