Thousands join church rally against health bill

Manila: Thousands joined a massive Catholic Church-initiated rally against the controversial health bill which allows the use of artificial contraceptive to stem the country's 2.2 per cent annual birth rate.

Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales reiterated the rally's theme, "Filipinos, unite under God for life," when he officiated a mass at the Quirino grandstand on Manila's central Luneta Park.

"This prayer rally is for all those who value life, family and life values," said Cardinal Rosales, adding, "Our country will never allow the repressive reproductive bill to be passed."

Yesterday's rally could nail the progress of the bill, observers said, adding it was the Catholic Church's most organised effort in its battle against Congress.

The rally coincided with the Catholic Church's Day of Unborn Children, meant to underline that the proposed reproductive health bill is pro-abortion.

"The bill must be exposed for what it truly is," said Cardinal Rosales as participants symbolically tore copies of the proposed reproductive health (RH) bill.

"This orchestration instigated by those against life, local and foreign, has to be stopped. We shall all stand united against the assault on life and its values," Cardinal Rosales said earlier, in a post on the website of the Catholic Church.

Participation

In a show of force, the rally was participated by bishops and priests of the Metropolitan See of Manila, including members of archdioceses and dioceses in Luzon.

Pro-life groups prayed and lectured at the mammoth protest rally that began at two in the afternoon and ended at midnight.

Participants swayed with lighted candles at night when the rally turned into fevered rites that included confessions and sermons that ushered the beginning of the Season of Lent.

It was the "grandmother of all rallies against the controversial reproductive health bill," said a Catholic.

The influential Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said the rally will pressure lawmakers to reject the bill.