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July 8-10, 2017

1. The election of the new officers of the CBCP had the following results:

NEWLY ELECTED CBCP OFFICERS

01 December 2017 – 30 November 2019

President                                  :          Abp. Romulo G. Valles

Vice President                          :          Bp. Pablo Virgilio S. David

Treasurer                                 :          Abp. John F. Du

Secretary General                     :          Rev. Fr. Marvin S. Mejia

Regional Representatives

Luzon:

North               :           Abp. Marlo M. Peralta

Central             :           Bp. Ruperto C. Santos

South               :           Bp. Jose R. Rojas

Southeast         :           Bp. Victor C. Ocampo

Southwest         :           Bp. Reynaldo G. Evangelista

Visayas:

East                 :           Bp. Isabelo C. Abarquez

West                :           Abp. Jose F. Advincula

Mindanao:

North               :           Abp. Martin S. Jumoad

South               :           Abp. Romulo T. dela Cruz

Chairmen of the Episcopal Commissions, Committees and Offices:

Episcopal Committee on Basic Ecclesial Communities  Bp. Jose A. Cabantan

Episcopal Commission on Biblical Apostolate  Bp. Sofronio A. Bancud, SSS

Episcopal Office on Bioethics  Bp. Ricardo L. Baccay

Episcopal Commission on Canon Law  Bp. Jacinto A. Jose

Episcopal Com. on Catechesis and Catholic Education  Bp. Roberto C. Mallari

Episcopal Commission on Clergy  Bp. Buenaventura M. Famadico

Episcopal Commission on Cultural Heritage of the Church Bp. Julito B. Cortes

Episcopal Commission on Culture  Bp. Elenito D. Galido

Episcopal Commission on Doctrine of the Faith  Orlando B. Cardinal Quevedo, OMI

Episcopal Commission on Ecumenical Affairs   Bp. Angelito R. Lampon, OMI

Episcopal Commission on Family and Life  Bp. Gilbert A. Garcera

Episcopal Commission on Health Care  Bp. Patricio A. Buzon, SDB

Episcopal Commission on Indigenous Peoples  Bp. Prudencio P. Andaya, CICM

Permanent Committee on Intern’l. Eucharistic Congresses Abp. Jose S. Palma

Episcopal Com. on Inter-religious Dialogue  Bp. Emmanuel T. Cabajar, CSsR

Episcopal Commission on the Laity  Bp. Broderick S. Pabillo

Episcopal Commission on Liturgy  Bp. Victor B. Bendico

Episcopal Commission on Migrants and Itinerant People   Bp. Ruperto C. Santos

Episcopal Commission on Mission   Bp. Arturo M. Bastes, SVD

Episcopal Commission on Mutual Relations  Abp. Antonio J. Ledesma, SJ

Episcopal Commission on Pontificio Collegio Filippino  Luis Antonio G. Cardinal Tagle

Episcopal Commission on Prison Pastoral Care  Bp. Joel Z. Baylon

Permanent Committee on Public Affairs   Bp. Reynaldo G. Evangelista

Episcopal Commission on Seminaries  Bp. Gerardo A. Alminaza

Episcopal Com. on Social Action, Justice and Peace  Abp. Rolando J. Tria Tirona, OCD

Episcopal Commission on Social Communications  Bp. Mylo Hubert C. Vergara

Episcopal Commission on Vocations   Bp. David William V. Antonio

Episcopal Office on Women  Abp. Jose F. Advincula, Jr.

Episcopal Commission on Youth  Bp. Leopoldo C. Jaucian, SVD

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January 11, 2017

PRESIDENT RODRIGO ROA DUTERTE
Office of the President
Republic of the Philippines
Malacanang Palace, Manila

Dear President Duterte,

Peace be with you!

When you assumed office as our Chief Executive, you have issued a lot of statements which inspired us; that as a President you will,

1. Uphold the constitution
2. Respect the rule of law
3. Recognize the separation of Church and State which means religious freedom  must be respected (because the state will not espouse any) tenets which are basic requirements of democracy.

We would like to bring to your attention therefore that it is precisely because of these concerns why a TRO was imposed by the Supreme Court (SC) on RA 10354 or the RH LAW. There were eight (8) provisions declared by the SC as unconstitutional and violative of :

1- Article 2 section 12 of the Constitution which states that life must be respected from the moment of conception until natural death

2- religious freedom

3- family code among others.

Last January 9, however, you issued executive no 12 which included strict implementation of RA 10354 (RH Law)

As a physicians and citizens of this Country, these are our concerns:

1. RH LAW VIOLATES THE RIGHT TO LIFE OF THE UNBORN
2. CONTRACEPTIVES AS ABORTIFACIENTS

A1. Pills

The issue on the abortifacient drugs and devices which would prevent implantation of a human being in the early stage of development is an important issue because it violates Article II, Section 12 of the Philippine Constitution which protects life from the moment of conception ( fertilization) until natural death.

These abortifacient drugs and devices which prevent implantation as listed in the textbooks of Embryology, Anatomy and Pharmacology should be identified, for example:

1. the birth control pills (BCPs) – Norgestrel and Ethinyl estradiol ( e.g. Lo/Ovral, TRUST pill, Femenal, etc. used by the DOH) –

It is important to take note that up to 1975, the U.S. Physicians Drug Reference only listed the following mechanisms of action :

1. Inhibition of ovulation, other alterations include
2. Changes in the cervical mucus which cause the difficulty of the sperm entry into the uterus.¹

After wards however, when abortion was already legal in the US, the third mechanism was already included:

3. Modification of endometrium preventing implantation of the fertilized ovum which can result to abortion.

(Abortion was legalized in the US in 1973. The 1978 edition of the U.S. Physicians Drug Reference already listed this no. 3 effect.)   

Why was the 3^rd mechanism of contraceptives which will render them as potential abortifacents were not included in the Physicians Drug Reference prior to the legalization of abortion in the US? For the simple reason that if this mechanism was included prior to abortion legalization, majority of these contraceptives would have been banned from the market prior to 1973.

Since Pill is a contraceptive how will it cause abortion?

Even if the woman is on the pill ovulation is not always suppressed since no drug works 100%.

Ovulation occurs in 2% to 10% of cycles of women taking the pill.

• known as breakthrough ovulation.

(Textbook of Contraceptive Practice of Cambridge (Cambridge University Press)

• later researches employing reduced dosage formulation of the pill which is currently being used, had shown higher breakthrough or escape ovulation in 30% of cycles.

                                            (Letterie, G.S; Contraception, 1998; 57, 39-14.) 

What happens when ovulation occurs while the woman is on the Pill?

• if the woman is sexually active, then the egg can be fertilized,

            Loss of the embryo or abortion may result through the following:

• transfer of the embryo through the fallopian tube slows down so that this new life maybe too old to be viable when it enters the uterus.

• more importantly the underdevelopment of the uterine lining caused by the pill prevents nidation or implantation.

• this 3^rd action of the pill remains to be listed in the website of the pharmacology of drugs up to the present.
• pharmacologists therefore recognizes the reality of breakthrough ovulation.
• if the fertilized embryo eventually dies and the remains are passed with the next bleeding, this will not be true menstruation but a form of chemical abortion because the uterine lining is rendered hostile for implantation.

(As early as 1967, the representatives of a major hormone producer already admitted that with the O.C.’s ovulation and the possibility of fertilization took place up to 7 % of cases, BUT subsequent implantation of the fertilized egg in the womb would usually be prevented.)

Abortifacient Contraception: The Pharmaceutical Holocaust
Rudolf Ehmann, M.D., Head, OB-GYN, Kantonsspital Hospital, Switzerland

The reality of breakthrough ovulation is manifested by “survivor pregnancies” as attested to by a study of Alan Guttmacher Institute ( the research arm of International Planned Parenthood (IPPF) a strong supporter of RH law worldwide). In theory, the Pill reaches an effectiveness of over 99% but in practice the rate is much lower. Between 1.9% and 18.1% of women will experience an ‘unplanned pregnancy’ in the first year of using the pill.⁷

• Even RH Law or RA 10354 itself states:
• Drugs and devices that prevent implantation are illegal in Sec. 2 (d); Sec. 4, (a)        
• It also emphatically declares that abortion is illegal ( 2, d; Sec. 3,d,e, Sec. 4, e, l, q. no. 3,s, Sec. 9, Sec. 19 no. 2, Sec. 23)

(Sect.2(d)…guarantees universal access to medically safe, non-abortifacient, effective, legal, affordable, and quality RH care services, methods, devices, supplies which do not prevent implantation of a fertilized ovum as determined by FDA. )   Continue reading

Vatican City, Jan 1, 2017 / 04:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Sunday Pope Francis said that celebrating Mary, the Mother of God, highlights a beautiful aspect of our faith: that Mary is our mother too, and that by her example we can learn to practice virtue and self-sacrifice in our own lives.

“By her motherhood, Mary shows us that humility and tenderness are not virtues of the weak but of the strong,” Francis said Jan. 1.

“To celebrate Mary as Mother of God and our mother at the beginning of the new year means recalling a certainty that will accompany our days: we are a people with a Mother; we are not orphans.”

Pope Francis celebrated Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica for the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God Jan. 1, reflecting on the line in Luke’s Gospel that says “Mary treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart.”

Despite everything that was happening in the days surrounding the birth of Jesus and after, Mary did not try to “understand” or to “master the situation,” the Pope pointed out, but instead, she treasured what happened, protecting and guarding “in her heart, the passage of God.”

“Deep within, she had learned to listen to the heartbeat of her Son, and that in turn taught her, throughout her life, to discover God’s heartbeat in history,” he continued.

Mary doesn’t say much in the Gospels, and she doesn’t make any big speeches or perform amazing deeds, but what she does have, Pope Francis said, is “an attentive gaze capable of guarding the life and mission of her Son, and for this reason, of everything that he loves.”

“Where there is a mother, there is tenderness,” he said, the many shrines, images and chapels around the world dedicated to Mary remind us of this. And celebrating the Holy Mother of God reminds us that we are not orphans, that we all have a mother.

“To begin the year by recalling God’s goodness in the maternal face of Mary, in the maternal face of the Church, in the faces of our own mothers, protects us from the corrosive disease of being ‘spiritual orphans,’” he said.

We experience this sense of being spiritually orphaned when we feel motherless and without the tenderness of God, the Pope noted, or when we feel like we don’t belong to God’s family. When this sense grows, it makes us more narcissistic and concerned with our own interests.

“It grows,” he said, “when we forget that life is a gift we have received – and owe to others – a gift we are called to share in this common home.”

But Mary, by comparison, “gave us a mother’s warmth,” he said. A “warmth that shelters us amid troubles, the maternal warmth that keeps anything or anyone from extinguishing in the heart of the Church the revolution of tenderness inaugurated by her Son.”

In our society, mothers are “the strongest antidote to our individualistic and egotistic tendencies, to our lack of openness and our indifference,” Pope Francis said. Mothers are capable of testifying to tenderness and self-sacrifice and hope in our society.

“Celebrating the feast of the Holy Mother of God makes us smile once more as we realize that we are a people, that we belong, that only within a community, within a family, can we as persons find the ‘climate,’ the ‘warmth’ that enables us to grow in humanity, and not merely as objects meant to ‘consume and be consumed,’” the Pope said.

“To celebrate the feast of the Holy Mother of God reminds us that we are not interchangeable items of merchandise or information processors. We are children, we are family, we are God’s People.”