Baby, fetus abandoned in Manila, Marikina

Amid the ongoing debate on reproductive health and population management, a baby was abandoned in Manila and a fetus was thrown in Marikina River, both incidents happened on Tuesday. In Manila, radio dzBB reported Wednesday a baby was left across a school beside the Church in the city's Sta. Ana district early Tuesday. Priests at the Sta. Ana parish named the infant "Baby Francis" and brought him to the Sta. Ana Hospital where he was placed in an incubator. Doctors said the baby was born prematurely Tuesday morning and needed antibiotics. In Marikina City, a female fetus placed inside an arinola (chamber pot) was found floating in the Marikina River at about 1 a.m. Tuesday, reported dzBB’s Manny Vargas, adding that residents near the Marikina River found the fetus floating inside a pink arinola (chamberpot). The report said the chamberpot was seen at the portion of the river near the Marcos Highway in Barangka village. Residents described the fetus as about six months old. Catholic Church officials had voiced alarm over the abandoning of fetuses in parts of Metro Manila since last month. In a pastoral letter on September 15, Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales warned of excommunication for those engaging in abortion. In the Catholic tradition, excommunication is a punishment involving the exclusion of a baptized follower from the Holy Communion during Masses for immoral behavior adjudged to be an offense against God or the Christian community. But shortly after his pastoral letter was read in Sunday Mass in the Manila Archdiocese, another fetus was found abandoned near a trash heap in Quezon City, with rosary found inside the box where the fetus was placed. Rosales, in his pastoral letter, said a deliberately procured abortion is a moral evil and the Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication on those who procure and helped obtain it. “Abortion is a grave sin against a defenseless life; and for this the severe canonical penalty to perpetrator(s) is excommunication," he said. He added unwanted pregnancies could be avoided if only people are “less selfish, and more disciplined and capable of self control, exercising a strong will, and capable of making sacrifices." Rosales' pastoral letter came after reports of incidents of abandonment of newborn babies in recent weeks. On September 12, a baby was found left in a trash bin inside Gulf Air's plane from Bahrain. A day after the airport incident, two more infants — one in Blumentritt in Manila and one in San Carlos City in Pangasinan — were also found abandoned, according to GMA News' “24 Oras." — LBG, GMANews.TV