PM and women groups hold symbolic die-in and candle-light at CBCP

PRESS RELEASE
27 February 2011

Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) women members will march today with women groups to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) in a peaceful mass action for the passage of the Reproductive Health (RH) bill.

More than a thousand women and men from Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) and different women’s groups will march at 5:00 pm today from Cory and Ninoy monuments, Bonifacio Drive corner Padre Burgos Street (across Manila Hotel) to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) office along General Luna Street in Intramuros.

The peaceful action will highlight the immediate consequences of the CBCP’s anti-RH position. A letter stating this position will be handed over to an official of the CBCP.

“We want to inform that Catholic hierarchy that its continued opposition to the RH bill has been causing 11 maternal deaths daily. Hopefully, this peaceful protest will open the eyes and hearts of the bishops and priests to the severe damage its stand has been causing Filipino women, especially poor women,” said PM Secretary General Judy Ann Chan-Miranda.

Miranda further explained that, “11 deaths per day are equal to 4,015 per year. And for more than a decade that the RH bill has been consistently opposed by the Church, almost 50,000 women have died. We sincerely hope na may puwang pa rin ang kababaihan sa puso ng mga obispo at pari at mababago ang kanilang tindig sa issue.”

After reading the letter, the die-in and lighting of 11 candles – symbolizing the maternal deaths – the group left the lighted candles and marched to the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM) to disperse peacefully.