I will not pretend I know everything about the Reproductive Health (RH) bill, slated today for a plenary vote at the Lower House, not for passage, but merely to agree to end the debates on it, so that amendments could already be formally introduced. At my age, I admittedly get confused over what’s what.
Still, the most incredible statements put me back on track.
Such as Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s Best Friend Forever Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas’ declaration to young people at last Saturday’s rally at the Edsa Shrine that, “contraception is corruption. The use of government money, taxpayers’ money to give out contraceptive pills is corruption. Contraceptive pills teach us it is all right to have sex with someone provided you are safe from babies.”
The Philippine Daily Inquirer calls it “a fudging of the facts and of logic so extreme it may be appropriate to call it diabolical. “
Now, is it fair to utter “diabolical” in the same breath as the most hallowed name of Archbishop Villegas?
Here’s something to mull about, from Dean Jorge Bocobo’s blog, (http://philippinecommentary. blogspot.com/2007/09/merciless-bishops- soc-villegas-and.html)  entitled “The Merciless Bishops Soc Villegas and Gaudencio Rosales,” unearthed for me by a family member, dated from as far back as Sept. 25, 2007. Read this and you be the judge.
 “What was really happening was that Sammy Ong, who claimed to have the Mother of all Tapes (actually four in number) given to him by Vidal Doble, was about to hold a press conference in which he would reveal everything about the scandal that had been precipitated a few days before on June 6, when Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye first revealed the Garci wiretappings. They were seeking sanctuary in the “Bahay Pari” (House of the Priests) of San Carlos, when the place was surrounded by heavily armed units of the Armed Forces, police, and the Intelligence Services.
“Now according to Atty. Luis Sison, who was also present during the entire three day incident, there came a point when Bishop Soc Villegas came to pick up Vidal Doble and bring him to General Abu at Camp Aguinaldo, where he said Doble’s wife and children were waiting to see him. Doble folded and the press conference was off because of the pressure of his family being fetched all the way from Kidapawan City by Palace trouble-shooter and the niece of Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales, (a Ms. Medy Poblador). They were then given a deadline to leave by 7 p.m. June 13.
“Sison relates how Atty. Samuel Ong, having no other sanctuary to run to, asked Bishop Soc Villegas for just a one-hour extension. The good bishop is said to have coldly looked around the room and declared, “You will be ALL out of here by 7 o’clock!!”
“At that point, Sison described Bishop Soc Villegas ‘MERCILESS.’ Another eyewitness, a Mr. Dan or Don Remo, said that he gave up being a Catholic on that very evening. Atty. Sison also said that when he tried to explain to Bishop Soc Villegas that Sammy Ong truly feared for his life (since the seminary was surrounded by reported sharpshooters and several armed agents had actually entered the seminary and ended up leaving their car full of firearms on the grounds), whereupon he says the bishop made a big show of making a phone call to the President to assure her there was no need for that and to call off any ‘sharpshooters.’
“The role played by Church personalities in that whole incident at San Carlos Seminary really needs more airing and examination. There are, I believe, CRIMINAL liabilities involved here on the part of persons like Soc Villegas and his boss, Gaudencio Rosales.”
So, there. The priest involved in the cover-up of the electoral fraud of 2004 is the same priest now telling us, that “contraception is corruption.” The priest who not only played dedma but directly participated in the wheelings and dealings of the Arroyo administration is the same priest now telling us, that,  “We can have more classrooms, more food, more jobs if we would be less corrupt.”
Ano ang karapatan niya? Again, you tell me, while meanwhile resurrected rumors circulate, of how so badly he wanted to be named Archbishop of Manila, except that the powers-that-be, the kingmakers of the local Catholic Church were supposedly so wary of him, they sent the name of a much gentler and much more respected other, to Pope Benedict XVI.
Villegas likewise in his speech — not by the way read by himself mismo, but by former ambassador to the Vatican Tita de Villa dahil hindi nagpunta ang arsobispo sa rally at mukhang natakot matunaw sakaling maulanan — referred to the possibility of an “abortion generation” following the use of modern contraceptives that prevent procreation. Na ewan ko naman, since with driving a car accidentally hitting someone is a possibility, bakit hindi na rin ipagkampanya ni Villegas and company na ipagbawal ang mga sasakyan sa kalye? The bill daw will also “encourage infidelity,” said he who keeps silent whenever a case of sexual molestation in the local Catholic Church hits media.
Then there’s also the matter of the “Yes to saved sex; no to safe sex” streamer bandied about by the anti-RH bill proponents last Aug. 4. It was their rally, so sure, they were free to put up whatever they wanted to put up, except I couldn’t believe how far irresponsible they went.
No to safe sex?
As noted by the PDI editorial, “The absolutist view of contraception was forever undermined when the Pope in late 2010 signaled a shift in his attitude toward the use of condoms to help stop the AIDS crisis in Africa, seeing it as possibly the first step of responsibility.’ That means that the use of condoms, a popular form of contraception, was not, could not be, intrinsically evil; official Church policy, to be sure, has not yet come around to such clarity of presentation, but it is deceptive of the statement-maker to suggest that the Church view on contraception is absolute and brooks no exception.”
I tell you, the saying “more Popish than the Pope” has never been as bagay.  
(For comments, write to armida114@yahoo.com)