Representatives of the Catholic Church on Thursday walked out a hearing being conducted by the Senate Committee on Health Technical Working Group on the Senate version of the Reproductive Health (RH) bill.

Fr Melvin Castro, executive secretary of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines Episcopal Commission on Family and Life, said he and other CBCP representatives left the hearing after seeing how supporters of the bill were ramming the draft of the bill like traditional politicians.

“They are not listening because they always disregard our side about the bill authored by Sen. Rodolfo Biazon,” Castro said in an online report published on the CBCP website (www.cbcpnews.com)

“They were already talking about amending the bill assuming that we are not opposed to it,” Castro said.

The priest said they were invited to the hearing to make it appear that a public consultation was made “but they are not listening to us.”

Castro said his group only wants to be thorough about the bill and make sure that it will not threaten the sanctity of life and the family. He said the Senate version of the RH bill is almost the same as that of the pending HB 5043 in Congress.

Consistent with their position on House version of the RH bill, church representatives looked forward to the event to voice out the church’s opposition to legislate a population control bill.

But he said the Senate subcommittee rejected their rights to analyze or at least comment or suggest amendments and motions to approve or disapprove some parts of the bill. “What happened today was really disappointing,” Castro said.