You have to hand it to Albay province's Gov Joey Salceda, President Gloria Arroyo's favourite economic adviser. He knows how to package a bundle of complicated issues into a sexy-soundbite story.

Expect the President to take the side of the Catholic bishops on the ongoing debate on population management, Salceda said Tuesday (July 15). 'There's very little pressure for drastic change in the policy, which the President says she wants to be consistent,' he said. He added partly in jest, 'Apparently, there are no people going out on the streets calling for less sex because it is sinfully delightful.'

In other words, the lobby for the use of artificial family planning is weak or ineffectual, or worse.

If Salceda, who enjoys the President's confidence, raised the issue of popular support with Arroyo's blessings or upon her instructions, then we have one more proof, if more proof were needed, of the commander in chief's overriding pragmatism. The stance she has taken on the issue of family planning or birth control - that of a meek and devout Catholic - turns out to be politically motivated. She is siding with the bishops because there is no political advantage to doing otherwise.

In fact, we think there is a natural and growing constituency for a responsible parenthood programme that includes artificial methods of birth control. It just isn't as organised as it ought to be, and is undermined by a readiness to dismiss the Catholic bishops' position as unrealistic, 'out of touch'.

The idea that bishops who live in palaces do not understand the daily cares of ordinary laypersons is as much a caricature as the notion that businessmen in boardrooms do not appreciate the economic difficulties of ordinary consumers. In fact, it is part of their job.

The Catholic bishops, in other words, are driven by pastoral concerns too. They know (or at least we suppose that most of them do) that the ideal of responsible parenthood codified in 'Humanae Vitae' exactly 40 years ago this month places a great burden on married couples. The responsibility is not to be shirked merely because of its weight.

The policy issue facing the national government, therefore, is not whether the bishops understand the plight of ordinary people or whether Catholic politicians can stand up to Church pressure, it is whether the country can balance population with resources.

The instruction given by Archbishop Jesus Dosado of Ozamiz to the priests in his archdiocese to consider denying Holy Communion to pro-abortion Catholic politicians has raised the temperature in an already heated controversy. In a sense, of course, Dosado was merely reminding his priests about their duty to apply canon law. But the pastoral letter (first broadcast beyond the borders of the archdiocese through the website of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines) was an unusual reminder; it served a political purpose too. It showed both the House of Representatives and the Senate a new resolve - or a sign of desperation - on the part of a senior member of the Church hierarchy.

The problem with Dosado's position, however, is that the reproductive health care bills pending in Congress which are at the centre of the controversy do not in fact legalise abortion. He has mischaracterised the entire range of artificial family planning methods as all abortifacient.

This is hardly a categorical finding; he should not be surprised if members of his own flock think differently.

On the great controversies, the Catholic Church has learned to admit other points of view. Dosado himself, in his pastoral letter, offers an example. 'For example, if a Catholic were to be at odds with the Holy Father on the decision to wage war, he would not for that reason be considered unworthy to present himself to receive Holy Communion. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war, but not about abortion,' he said.

That is exactly where we find ourselves today, at a critical juncture where bishops and laity alike discuss whether the 'diversity of opinion even among Catholics' about the nature of artificial birth control methods can be considered 'legitimate'.

In the meantime, the lack of an aggressive policy helps cause 1.4 million unplanned pregnancies in the country every year. Of that total, a staggering one-third (about 473,000) ends in abortion.

The question then presents itself: Why privilege conceptual abortions over actual ones?