CEBU CITY, Philippines - Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal has set in motion a massive parish-based signature campaign that aims to pressure Congress into shelving the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) bill.The goal is to gather at least one million signatures in Cebu to show the congressional proponents of the measure that there is no public support for the RH bill, said Dr. Rene Josef Bullecer, the country’s director for the church-based Human Life International (HLI). Bullecer said Cardinal Vidal wants to show Congress that the Archdiocese of Cebu is united in its opposition against a bill, which pro-life proponents have described as pro-abortion and which seeks to among others make artificial contraceptives available in government health centers and requires sex education for students from Grade 5 to fourth year high school. The Catholic Church considers artificial contraceptives as anti-life and immoral. According to the Catholic Church, married couples should practice only natural family planning methods, which entail avoidance of sex when the woman is ovulating. Cardinal Vidal made the call for the signature campaign in his homily during the Sunday Mass held on the eve of the birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The signature campaign, the prelate said, will be done in all 142 parishes of the Archdiocese. “Isip amahan sa Archdiocese, ako dunay gahum ug katungod pagmandar nga magsugod kita sa signature campaign nga pagahimoon sa 142 ka mga parokya aron maipakita nato ang atong pagsupak gayud sa pagahimoong balaod nga Reproductive Health Care and Population Management Act of 2008 (As the father of the Archdiocese, I have the authority and right to order that we should start a signature campaign in the 142 parishes to show our objection to the proposed law called the Reproductive Health Care and Population Management Act of 2008),” Bullecer quoted Vidal as saying during the homily. The Mass, held past 6 a.m. on Sunday at the Seminary Program Formation Year (SPFY) covered court inside the Archbishop’s Residence compound, was attended by about a thousand faithful, Bullecer said. Vidal asked the Mass participants if they were willing to sign twice. After he got a resounding "yes” for a response, Vidal declared that the signature campaign would officially start in front of the statue of Pope John Paul II found inside the Archbishop Residence. At least 500 of those who attended the Mass became the first batch of signatories in a letter-petition that will be sent to members of the House of Representatives and to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Bullecer said. Monsignor Achilles Dakay, media liaison officer of the Archdiocese of Cebu, said the different parishes in Cebu would officially start the signature campaign on Sunday, coinciding with the birthday of the Blessed Virgin. Dakay said Vidal would again ask Cebuanos to join the signature drive in today's Masses that he would officiate in the shrines of the Blessed Virgin in Lindogon, Simala, Sibonga and in Canduman, Mandaue City. Dakay said Vidal decided to conduct the signature campaign in the wake of the signature drive started last week by the Archdiocese of Manila. In a statement issued last Friday, the Manila Archdiocese said Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales has signed a circular last week directing all parishes and priests to express their opposition against the bill by signing a letter addressed to members of the House of Representatives who support it. The proposal is now up for floor deliberations. Cebu Archdiocesan Episcopal Vicar Msgr. Esteban Binghay yesterday said Vidal has informed all the priests since last week about the signature drive. Binghay said all the priests are required to explain to the churchgoers why the church opposed the bill. Binghay said priests have been furnished with the copy of the controversial bill as well as the commentary of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) about the bill, so the priests will be guided in their own homilies and their pronouncements against the bill. Binghay, also the vice rector of the Theotokos Shrine in Barangay Perrelos in the southern Cebu town of Carcar, said he also started the signature drive in Theotokos and has so far gathered 300 signatures. There was no instruction on the age limit of the signatories but Binghay said it should only involve those 18 years old and above. But Bullecer said he had suggested to Vidal to allow Grade 5 pupils, or those with age ranging from 11 to 12, to take part in the drive because these pupils are the ones who will undergo sex education if the bill becomes a law. Bullecer said he also recommended to Vidal to expand the signature drive to include Catholic-run schools and chapel-based groups. The Cardinal has yet to respond to his suggestion but he said the prelate was “open to the idea,” he said. There was no timetable when the signature campaign will end but Bullecer said Vidal wants it completed “as soon as possible.” Bullecer said he told the Cardinal that it would be easy to gather one million signatures in just a month because if each of the 142 parish can get 10,000 signatures, it will already mean 1.4 million signatures. The Archdiocese’s pastoral board will release on Monday the guidelines for the signature drive, according to Dakay. Pro-life groups are also set to hold a series of activities as part of an information dissemination program to spread the Church teachings on family life and on natural family planning, Bullecer said. He said he would meet soon with 15 key leaders of church-based groups across the country to discuss their next move. Rallies against the RH bill have already been planned for this month in the cities of Ormoc and Tacloban, both in Leyte; Roxas City, Capiz; and in the Mindanao cities of Kidapawan (North Cotabato) and Pagadian (Zamboanga del Sur), according to Bullecer. Fr. Rufino Sescon, the Manila Archdiocese's chancellor who prepared the circular, said they intend to show lawmakers, particularly the bill's ardent supporters Representatives. Edcel Lagman, Janette Garin, Narciso Santiago III and Ana Theresa Hontiveros-Baraquiel, that there is not much public support for the bill. Sescon said the archdiocese, which covers Metro Manila and some dioceses in surrounding provinces like Rizal and Laguna, has directed all priests to exhaust all means to have the campaign reach all their parishioners. Lagman, who stressed that the bill does not legalize abortion, said it is important to give the public access to contraceptives and reproductive health information to avoid unwanted and untimely pregnancies and to curb the country's population, which now stands around 90 million. Bullecer, meanwhile, said a dialog between the authors of the RH bill and those who opposed it is unlikely as there are no common issues that the two groups can ever agree on. “I don't think a dialog is needed or is even possible, said Bullecer. He said legislators like Lagman are pushing for the bill just to comply with international treaties like the Millennium Development Goal (MDGs) signed by members of the United Nations. The MDGs are eight goals to be achieved by 2015 that respond to the world's main development challenges such as poverty, education, maternal death and child mortality. /With reports from Ma. Bernadette A. Parco and Inquirer | 
