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Date Posted: 20:47:08 12/04/12 Tue
Author: IMRD
Subject: Dec. 4-5, 2012 news

http://www.tribuneonline.org/index.php/headlines/item/7588-noy-presses-house-vote-on-rh-bill
Noy presses House vote on RH bill
• Written by Angie M. Rosales
• Saturday, 01 December 2012 00:00
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President Aquino yesterday said he will meet with the lawmakers on Monday to convince them to put the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) bill to a vote whatever the outcome will be.
In an interview in Mandaue City at the sidelines of his meeting with the Liberal Party members, Aquino said he will ask legislators to ensure a quorum and a decision reached for the proposal.
“I will appeal to them. Number one, ensure a quorum; number two, make sure that they will decide on it. If we keep this hanging, there will be a divisive factor,” he stressed.
“There should be a decision, either way. Whatever they will pass, that will be the one that the Executive will implement.”
Asked if he will agree with whatever the House decision would be, the President reiterated his stand that he supports the RH bill.
“I’m pro... for responsible parenthood that this is a matter of conscience. We all
have value system, belief system, and we need to respond based on what our conscience tells us,” Aquino stressed.
He added the Liberal Party won’t impose anything on its members when they decide on the issue, adding he believes party members will decide based on their conscience.
He also said there might be a decision to certify RH Bill as urgent, depending on the necessity. But he noted that he’s not keen on certifying bills as urgent because there are certain guidelines for such proposals to be certified as urgent.
The meeting on Monday to discuss the proposal with House members will be the second time for President Aquino.
In a meeting at Malacañang last August, the President pleaded with the lawmakers to end floor debates on the said measure. They eventually voted to move the proposed law to the period of amendments.
Meanwhile, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile yesterday said the Senate can still squeeze in the stalled deliberations on the controversial RH bill in the remaining session weeks of Congress.
He, however, conceded that with the load of pending amendments to be made, there’s no assurance on the passage of the bill before the 15th Congress adjourns next year.
“We always have time for the RH bill but mind you, I still have a number of amendments to be introduced (on the floor). We can’t tell when it (period of amendments) can be wrapped up. Some of my amendments are really substantial amendments,” the Senate chief stressed.
With the sin tax bill and the proposed P2.006-trillion national budget for 2013 already up for bicameral conference deliberations next week, Enrile said he does not have any idea whether the RH bill can be tackled again since there are other pending measures in their agenda such as the Freedom of Information (FoI) bill.
While proponents of RH bill in the House of Representatives have vowed to push the approval of the measure before Congress goes on Christmas break, the same cannot be expected of the Senate, he added.
“Whatever the House does, we will do our own thing,” Enrile stressed.
But regardless of the amendments he will proposed on the bill, the Senate leader admitted that he will still vote against the measure in the end.
“My vote is against the RH bill. Even if they accept my proposal, not because of religion and morality, but because of my long term assessment of what this bill does to the country. It is my duty as a leader of this country to vote of what is good for it. I am not saying that I am right but that is my perception. I vote according to my perception,” he said.
When asked why he’s still pursuing the matter of amending the bill despite of his firm stance against the measure, Enrile said it’s “just just to show them that we are not delaying it, that we want to refine it.”
“And to tell you the truth, my purpose in proposing some of my amendments is to show to the people that this bill is not really all for the health of the women, it is a population control and management,” he said.
Sen. Pia Cayetano, one of the two sponsors of Senate Bill 2865, has been engaged in a countless of times in a clash with the Senate chief on the plenary floor over the matter of the RH bill in the light of their conflicting views on the nature of the measure.
“They still refuse to admit (that it’s a population control bill) because it’s camouflage into a health bill but the real purpose is to contract population of the country. They’re talking of fertility rate, they’re talking of too much poverty. They’re talking about social development, they’re talking of too many people and it’s destructive to the environment, what is that? Tell the truth. That’s population management and control. Not just health bill for women.”
The upper chamber leader dismissed the possibility of the bill being voted upon before the Christmas recess.
“How can they do that? We have not finished the period of the process. Each one of us has a right to present our amendments,” he stressed.
“Senator Cayetano cannot impose her will on the Senate. If she can get the number to closure the other members, so be it. But I don’t think the other senators will do that because that will start the precedent and while they may have the numbers now, soon, others may... the political weather might change and it could be also be used against them,” he said.
Although any member of the upper chamber can move for a division of the house, meaning put to a vote the matter of closing the period of amendments to advance the bill to its approval, Enrile made this statement: “I do not know whether they have the numbers. If they have the numbers, go on... but I warn them that any action like that, while they may win this time, it could also be used against them at a later date.”


http://manilastandardtoday.com/2012/12/01/aquino-to-solons-end-debates-just-vote-on-rh-bill/
Aquino to solons: End debates, just vote on RH bill
By Joyce Pangco Panares | Posted on Dec. 01, 2012 at 12:01am | 916 views
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President Benigno Aquino III says he will not impose his will on lawmakers over the controversial Reproductive Health bill when he meets with them over lunch in Malacañang on Monday.
He says he will make another push for Congress to vote on the measure once and for all, but he does not want the divisiveness that has rocked Congress to continue because of the debates over the RH bill, which is also known as the Responsible Parenthood bill.
That bill aims to guarantee universal access to the methods of contraception, fertility control, sexual education and maternal health care, but the Catholic Church and some lawmakers are violently against it, saying it is immoral and anti-life.
“The Liberal Party will not impose our position,” Mr. Aquino said on Friday.
“We will respect their individual conscience, but they have to decide. We will suggest to them to decide on the bill.” House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte said “the closest thing the President will ask for is to put the measure to a vote.
“I think we have reached a point, long overdue, to vote on this…Let’s just vote on this bill to end the debates,” Belmonte said.
Monday’s meeting will be the second time that Mr. Aquino would be discussing the bill with House members. Mr. Aquino pleaded with the lawmakers to end the floor debates on the measure during their first meeting in August.
Still, a breakthrough was achieved this week after Congress succeeded in adopting a substitute version of the controversial bill. The new version says the state will only promote “access to relevant information and education on medically-safe, legal, ethical, affordable, effective and quality reproductive health care services, methods, devices and supplies which do not prevent the implantation of a fertilized ovum as determined by the Food and Drug Administration.”
The state will also promote openness to life “provided that parents bring forth to the world only those children that they can raise in a truly humane way.”
Meanwhile, Migrante, the newly-accredited party-list group for migrant workers, on Friday slammed Senate president Juan Ponce Enrile for telling reporters that “our biggest exports are [Filipino workers]…the reason why I am against the RH bill.”
“While Senator Enrile is right in his observation that [Filipino workers] are the country’s biggest exports…his justification for his anti-RH stand is misplaced and put in an improper context,” said John Leonard Monterona, the group’s vice chairman and regional coordinator in the Middle East.
Enrile has said that Filipino workers are engaged in a contractual employment but eventually come home for reintegration into the jobless population, but Monterona said Enrile had failed to recognize the root cause of the Filipino workers’ forced migration. With Ronald O. Reyes


http://manilastandardtoday.com/2012/12/05/survey-says-teenagers-favor-rh-bill/

Survey says teenagers favor RH bill
By Rio N. Araja | Posted on Dec. 05, 2012 at 12:01am | 450 views
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Metro Manila teenagers support the passage of Reproductive Health Bill because it would address the problems caused by runaway population growth such as poverty, slow economic growth and environmental degradation, according to a new survey released by the Social Weather Station (SWS) on Tuesday.
SWS President Mahar Mangahas said 83 percent of young people with ages ranging from 15 to 19 were aware of the Church’s intervention in the affairs of the government on the issue of reproductive health-care and family planning.
“They believe in birth spacing by three years, limited number of children (through family planning) and government intervention (to address overpopulation). They see overpopulation a serious social problem,” Mangahas said.
The Survey of Adolescents on Population, Reproductive Health, HIV-AIDS and Gender was made from October 26 to 28 on 600 respondents. It was commissioned by the advocacy group Forum for Family Planning and Development, Inc.
The results were released as Congress went through the final phases of the controversial RH Bill that has polarized the nation. The Roman Catholic Church has openly opposed the bill and threatened to use the pulpit to campaign against politicians supporting the bill.
The survey said 87 percent of the respondents want the government to provide services to the poor who want to use family planning methods, and improve facilities in health centers.
Students must be given health education in school and young men and women given access to family planning, 84 percent of the respondents said.
At least 59 percent said an unwed and pregnant teenager must not stop going to school despite her situation, but 43 percent consider as abortion the use of condoms, pills and other contraceptives.
Mangahas said only 14 percent of respondents are voters, 24 percent are not registered voters and 62 percent are below 18 or non-voters.
“This issue [on reproductive health] is not age related. I am just assertive that age is not a factor for a vote. Some cannot vote yet, but they are voters in the future,” he said.
The Forum for Family Planning and Development President Benjamin de Leon said the bill will not be a factor in the mid-term elections in May and politicians should not fear the Catholic church.
“There is no Catholic vote, but there is an RH vote,” De Leon said.
Bicol Rep. Edcel Lagman said most local candidates “hide their position on the RH bill for fear of losing votes in next year’s elections.”

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