PRO-WOMEN. Students called for the passage of the bill last August 6 at Gate 2.5 of the Ateneo de Manila University. Photo by Christella D. Soriano.

DESPITE THE heavy rains, students in favor of House Bill No. 4244, commonly known as the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill, gathered at Gate 2.5 to participate in the Pro-RH Bill noise barrage and prayer vigil last Monday, August 6.

Students chanted “Pass that bill!” and “Reproductive Health Bill, oras na ipasa!” while prompting passing vehicles to honk their horns in support of the measure.

Moses Albiento, one of the organizers of the prayer vigil and noise barrage, said that the mobilization was a response to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines’ (CBCP) own prayer vigil.

“We’re praying that we’ll be guided in our decision of being pro-RH bill and we hope that people will listen to us,” he said in a mix of Filipino and English.

Albiento said that, as shown through the rally, the RH Bill’s supporters in school wanted to have a “public action [from] within the Ateneo also.”

“We [came here] as individuals. There is no group here, aside from Crusada, which openly says they are pro-RH Bill. We went here [in] our own individual capacity to support the bill,” he added. Crusada is the Christian Union for Socialist and Democratic Advancement, a student political party.

“We also want to let those outside [Ateneo] know that although the CBCP is telling us that the RH bill is anti-poor and whatnot, we Ateneans think otherwise.”

Faculty members were also present in the mobilization, such as Political Science Department Instructor RR Rañeses and Chairperson Alma Salvador, Sociology and Anthropology Department Professorial Lecturer Elizabeth Uy Eviota, Theology Department Assistant Professor Roberto Guevara and Interdisciplinary Studies Department Assistant Professor Marita Castro Guevara.

Watch out for the full story in The GUIDON’s August 2012 issue.