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Date Posted: 20:01:58 12/10/12 Mon
Author: IMRD
Subject: Dec. 13, 2012 news

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/322133/senators-to-hold-session-for-rh-bill
Senators to hold session for RH bill
Philippine Daily Inquirer
5:08 am | Tuesday, December 11th, 2012

Senate labor chairman Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
Senators will hold an extra session next week to tackle the reproductive health (RH) bill if the House of Representatives manages to pass its version before Congress goes on break this month.
“The Senate President (Juan Ponce Enrile) has already agreed to the additional session day for the chamber to vote on the measure on third reading. This assumption is if the House will act on the measure,” said Sen. Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada. “If the House does not act on the measure, I think there is no point in us having a session on Thursday.”
Under the compromise, anti-RH Senators Ralph Recto and Vicente Sotto III should finish their proposed amendments to the RH bill by Wednesday and Monday, respectively.
This move was labeled as a compromise to the latest wrangling in the Senate on the RH bill as Sotto vigorously opposed moves to tackle the population control measure ahead of other bills scheduled for deliberation.
Sotto shot down a move by Sen. Pia Cayetano, an author of the RH bill, to move the discussion on the bill from page 4 to page 1 of the Senate agenda yesterday.
Cayetano was keen to conclude the period of amendments before the Christmas break in order to give time for Congress to have it approved in the separate chambers and at the bicameral conference committee.
But Sotto was adamant about getting all the details from the RH bill proponents first before moving forward to the period of amendments. “How about you, when were you forced to amend?” asked Sotto at the rostrum. “What’s so important about passing it before Christmas when we are scheduled to stay here until February?”
Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago stood up to back up Cayetano and urged the Senate to give “interdepartmental courtesy’’ to the President who has “articulated his desire” to prioritize the RH bill. Gil Cabacungan

http://manilastandardtoday.com/2012/12/11/bishops-told-not-to-sow-fear-to-defeat-rh/

Bishops told not to sow fear to defeat RH
By Christine F. Herrera | Posted on Dec. 11, 2012 at 12:02am | 600 views
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The author of the Reproductive Health bill on Monday warned Catholic bishops against using fear and intimidation to sway lawmakers to reject the hotly contested measure ahead of a crucial vote in the House of Representatives Wednesday.
At the same time, a late vote scheduled by the Senate cast doubt over the bill’s fate there.
“Catholic bishops are welcome during the consideration and voting on the RH bill, but they are cautioned not to demean congresspersons by treating them like docile sheep to be watched and shepherded,” said Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, principal author of the bill in the House.
The bishops, who have put on a show of force in the plenary, want Congress to delay voting on the RH bill to allow more time for study. Supporters of the bill, however, say debates over the bill have gone on for more than a year, and that the time has come to vote.
“If the veiled purpose of the bishops’ presence in the gallery is to sow fear or employ intimidation against legislators, they will not succeed because fear is destitute of reason and must be resisted with conviction, and not be allowed to deter or delay legislation,” he said.
Last week, the bishops mounted a text campaign to pressure lawmakers into rejecting the RH bill. They said they were keeping score on the votes of each lawmaker, and that those who voted for the bill would face reprisals during next year’s election.
But Lagman said the presence of bishops in the plenary during the past session days did not save the “killer amendments” proposed by RH critics from being voted down repeatedly.
The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, which objects to the bill on the basis of its support for birth control and sex education, said many bishops and nuns will be present at the House on Wednesday, when the bill is put to a vote on second reading.
Melvin Castro, the priest who heads the CBCP’s Episcopal Commission on Family and Life, said the presence of the bishops would provide moral and spiritual support to lawmakers who opposed the bill.
The bishops exhorted parishioners to join them in prayer so that the bill will be rejected.
But a co-author and outspoken defender of the bill, Pangasinan Rep. Kimi Cojuangco, said they would not be intimidated by the prelates.
“We cannot be cowed. We have been firm in our position that the country needs the RH bill to help empower our people and alleviate poverty,” Cojuangco said.
Akbayan Rep. Walden Bello added that the bishops could no longer change the stance of the pro-RH lawmakers, and said their presence in the gallery might have even backfired.
“I think the bishops’ intimidating presence might backfire. One anti-RH person in fact told me that he is against the bishops watching the vote from the gallery since this smacks of intimidation and would not wish this ordeal on anybody, pro- or anti-RH,” Bello said.
With a vote on Wednesday assured, the House session adjourned early Monday night because of a lack of quorum, with only 136 lawmakers responding to a second roll call at 7:45 p.m., down from 183 who were present at 6:30 p.m.
In the Senate, Senator Pia Cayetano, sponsor of the bill, said a scheduled vote set for Dec. 20 was in doubt because of a lack of quorum since many senators might already be out of town by then.
Earlier, Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada said amendments to the bill would be completed by Monday next week, followed by a vote on second reading. Because there must be three days between the second and third reading, the final vote was set for Dec. 20.
But Cayetano expressed concerns that the vote might not take place.
“Because of the late hour… a lot of our colleagues are no longer here, and I am unable to verify if some of our colleagues [will] still be here on Thursday (December 20) because based on our calendar, we end [the session] on Wednesday (Dec. 19),” she said.
Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago, meanwhile, disputed claims by anti-RH senators that the bill was being railroaded.
“We have to stop at some point, 13 years is enough,” she said, referring to the number of times the bill was filed – and derailed – in Congress.
On the day of the crucial House vote, the bishops will hold a Mass at St. Peter Parish along Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City before proceeding to Congress, CBCP’s Castro said. He said supporters and members of several Church-backed organizations would also gather outside Congress to pray for the bill’s rejection.
Members of the academe supporting the RH bill, however, said they were confident of its passage after the final stretch of debates.
“The votes in Congress shot down every ridiculous argument against the RH bill. Clearly, the opposition to RH is untenable and indefensible, it is based on out-dated and conservative conceptions of sexuality and relations between persons and has absolutely no respect for the rights of women over our own bodies,” said Sylvia Estrada-Claudio, the group’s spokesperson. With Macon Ramos-Araneta, Maricel V. Cruz, Vito Barcelo

http://www.tribune.net.ph/index.php/headlines/item/8001-bishops-apply-pressure-on-house-vs-rh-bill

Bishops apply pressure on House vs RH bill
• Written by Gerry Baldo
• Tuesday, 11 December 2012 00:00
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Ranking leaders of the Catholic Church are applying divine pressure on the House of Representatives by attending in full force at the current deliberations on the Reproductive Health (RH) bill, which the clergy are vehemently opposing for supposed violation of Catholic beliefs on life preservation.
Bishops said their presence was meant to counter the pressure being applied by President Aquino on legislators to pass the bill.
Antipolo Bishop Gabriel Reyes, the chairman of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines’ Episcopal Commission on Family Life, said bishops would continue to watch House deliberations on the bill to show their support for the anti-RH lawmakers.
Reyes said the RH bill is against the teachings of the Church. Aside from Reyes, seen in the House gallery was Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal.
“We are here to show our support to the anti-RH congressmen. The RH-bill is against the teachings of the Catholic Church. It promotes promiscuity, pre-marital sex, extra, marital sex and teen-age pregnancy,” Reyes told reporters.
Reyes also reacted to the statement of Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman that the bishops and other members of religious groups are sowing fear and intimidating the lawmakers who are in favor of the RH bill.
“In a democracy we have a right to stand for something that is not good for the country,” Reyes told House reporters.
Reyes noted that while the Aquino government is trying to put pressure on lawmakers to vote in favor of the RH-Bill, he said the bishops, priests, nuns and other religious groups are in the House to counter the government move.
“We are here to remid them that they are Catholics and that the RH-bill is against the teachings of the Church,” he said.
Reyes stressed that instead of spending billions of pesos for the RH-Bill, the Aquino government should use the money to improve the economy.
Lagman, in a statement yesterday said that the Catholic bishops are welcome during the consideration and voting on the RH bill, but they should not “demean member of Congress by treating them like docile sheep to be watched and shepherded.
“The presence of bishops in the plenary during the past session days did not save the ‘killer’ amendments proposed by RH critics from being voted down repeatedly,” Lagman, the main proponent of the RH bill said.
Lagman said that what Bishops cannot achieve by reason and persuasion, they must not pursue through fear and intimidation.
“If the veiled purpose of the Bishops’ presence in the gallery is to sow fear or employ intimidation against legislators, they will not succeed because fear is destitute of reason and must be resisted with conviction, and not be allowed to deter or delay legislation,” The Albay lawmaker said.
Lagman accused the Catholic Church of sowing fear among the lawmakers.
“Fear has always been used by the clergy as an instrument of repression and reprisal like fear of eternal damnation, fear of excommunication, fear of offending religious ministers, fear of contraceptives as abortifacients and carcinogenic, and fear of a demographic winter, all of which are wanting of reasonable and empirical anchorage,” Lagman said.
Reyes directly accused Malacańang of pressuring anti-RH congressmen through the disbursement of their pork barrels.
Reyes urged opponents of the bill or pro-life groups to pray and take part in a protest movement against the passing of the RH Bill when the House is expected to vote on second reading of the bill on Wednesday which is also the feast of our Lady of Guadalupe, the patron saint of the unborn.
Reyes said he will lead the celebration of the mass at the St.Peter Cathedral sa Commonwealth Avenue,QC at 12:00 noontime then after mass, prolifers will march to Batasan Pambansa where they stage a vigil.
Novaliches Bishop Emeritus Teodoro Bacani Jr., had advised prolifers to expose to the public if the reports are true that Malacańang is using as hostage the pork barrel funds of anti-RH congressmen to compel them to vote for the RH Bill Bill
Bishop Bacani in his reaction stated that it is not right for the Palace or the Department of Budget and Management to use their power in pressuring anti RH Bill congressman for an ‘anti life’ bill where it will spread immorality when the law is passed.
The Bishop announced that the allegation should be exposed to the public where the Malacańang is going a through a wrong “straight path”” of President Benigno Aquino III.
Speaker Feliciano “Sonny” Belmonte also expressed optimism that members of the House who flew to to the United States over the weekend to watch the fourth tiff between Sarangani Rep. Manny Pacquiao amd Mexican boxer Juan Manuel Marquez live, will be back by Wednesday in time for the voting on the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) Bill.
This even as staunch RH Bill proponent, Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman warned Catholic bishops who will be in attendance during Wednesday’s voting against any “hostile act” against lawmakers who will be voting for the controversial measure.
In a text message, Belmonte said he had received confirmation from the lawmakers who are still in the US they will be back today, Tuesday, one day ahead of Wednesday’s scheduled voting for the RH Bill. Charlie V. Manalo, Pat C. Santos

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