The Archbishop of Caceres, in a pastoral letter read in churches in yesterday, said the controversial reproductive health bill is unneeded. Archbishop Leonardo Legaspi said the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines withjdrew from talks with the government over the bill, which they oppose, because it it is a take-it-or-leave-it package with good and bad provisions interwoven. While the bill provides for hospital and maternal health care, it also promotes, using public funds, contraceptives as means for population control, he said. It establishes a value system that is materialistic and hedonistic and hostile to family and religion. "What clearly matters for us, is how we stood our ground and remained faithful to Our Lord who has assured us: ‘I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly’,” Archbishop Legaspi said. In the Archdiocese of Cebu, critics of the birth control measure, meanwhile, held a caravan to campaign for the rejection of the bill, which will be discussed in Congress tomorrow. The group visited churches and government offices in the cities of Lapu-Lapu, Mandaue and Talisay to convince local officials to support the campaign against the bill. PM14244