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Frustrated Population-Control Philippine Politician Wants Church Declared National Security Threat

By Terry Vanderheyden

MANILA, November 25, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Filipino politician, frustrated by the Catholic Church’s opposition to a population control bill, has suggested that the Church be labelled a threat to national security.

Alagad Partylist Representative Rodante Marcoleta charged that the Catholic Church is responsible for hindering the passage of population-control Bill 3773. “It’s an open secret that there’s strong lobbying by the Catholic Church,” Marcoleta said, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer. “Do you treat the Catholic Church (as) a national threat?”

Bill 3773, the “Responsible Parenthood and Population Management Act,” mandates a rule that restricts families to two children, introduces sex education for children and the distribution of artificial contraceptives.

Earlier this month, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines called on Congress to quash 3773 in favour of a proposal by Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. She proposes using United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) money to promote church-approved, scientifically based natural family planning; she also stressed that population is not the reason for poverty, as the UN claims.

Archbishop Paciano Aniceto hailed Arroyo’s proposal as “The closest we ever got to identifying the solution to the long-standing problem of poverty. Since poverty is an economic problem, the President is right in pinpointing that the solution should also be economic in nature, even more properly as improving the productivity of families,” he explained.

Despite the Philippine constitution that protects human life from the moment of conception, the anti-life movement is making gains there. In the declassified 1974 US government document, National Security Study Memorandum 200, the Philippines was included in a list of countries whose population growth and consequent growth in prosperity would threaten U.S. security and overseas economic interests. The solution recommended was the imposition of radical population control measures through the United Nations aid programmes.

A similar one-child allowance in communist China has led to widespread infanticide, forced abortion and sterilization and a looming demographic disaster as fewer female children have been allowed to live since the policy was implemented in the 1970s.

See related news:
Thousands Rally in Philippines to Protest Population Control Bill
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/mar/05030705.html
Thousands of Philippine Men Undergo Chemical Vasectomy in USAID Funded Program
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/apr/03040905.html
New World Health Organization Chief Involved In Population Control Vaccine Scandal
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/jan/03013003.html
UNFPA Earmarks $26 Million for Philippine De-Population Programme
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/feb/05021004.html

The Effectiveness Of Natural Family Planning
http://ccli.org/nfp/basics/effectiveness-p01.php
Natural Family Planning (NFP)
http://www.irh.org/nfp.html
Is Natural Family Planning for You?
http://www.christianitytoday.com/tcw/6w6/6w6127.html

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