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Date Posted: 22:56:09 08/09/12 Thu
Author: IMRD
Subject: Aug 7, 2012 news

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?publicationSubCategoryId=63&articleId=835460


House ends RH debates
By Paolo Romero (The Philippine Star) Updated August 07, 2012 12:00 AM Comments (35)



Manila, Philippines - The passage of the Reproductive Health (RH) bill in the House of Representatives before the end of the month looms after the chamber voted last night to finally terminate discussions on the controversial measure after 19 months of debate.
Hours earlier, President Aquino called for a majority caucus at Malacañang attended by 182 lawmakers to rally them to vote for the termination of the debates in the House, citing studies and even personal anecdotes on the urgent need for the enactment of House Bill 4244.
In making the motion to end debates on the measure, House Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II cited Section 54 of the House rules, which prescribes the termination of discussions when a certain number of speeches have been delivered for or against a measure.
He said seven lawmakers have delivered speeches in favor of HB 4244 while 16 anti-RH congressmen have already debated with their colleagues, with some interpellating for four straight session days.
“Who will we listen to? The clergy? Or the people who elected us? I say we listen to the people; 82 percent of them are for the RH bill,” Muntinlupa Rep. Rodolfo Biazon, one of the authors of the measure, told his colleagues just before the viva voce voting of 249 House members.
Navotas City Rep. Tobias Tiangco questioned the results of the viva voce voting and called for a nominal voting - where the ballot of each House member would be recorded - saying he was not convinced by the results of the voting presided over by Deputy Speaker Arnulfo Fuentebella.
Tiangco’s motion, however, was put on hold as the chamber’s leadership moved to defuse tension on the floor. After nearly an hour, the lawmaker withdrew his motion.
With the termination of debates, the bill - otherwise known as “An Act Providing For A Comprehensive Policy On Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health, And Population And Development” - will enter the period of amendments and be up for passage on second reading, the crucial approval of any measure.
Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, principal author of the measure, said the controversial bill will be approved on third and final reading before the end of the month when the House starts deliberating on the proposed P2-trillion national budget for 2013.
“We have a calibrated move for this,” Lagman told The STAR minutes before the voting.
Similar RH bills have been filed since the late 1980s in Congress but they have not been approved due to strong lobbying by the Catholic Church.
Prior to the “ayes and nays” voting, Reps. Rufus Rodriguez (Cagayan de Oro), Mitos Magsaysay (Zambales), and Hermilando Mandanas (Batangas) made impassioned pleas to their colleagues to continue discussions.
“This bill is against the Constitution,” Rodriguez said. “Article 15 states that Filipinos can raise their families according to their religious convictions. This particular bill coerces the Filipino family.”
Magsaysay said she was surprised the voting was scheduled a day before the announced date.
Former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo left the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) where she is confined to attend the voting.
Arroyo, escorted by her son Camarines Sur Rep. Diosdado Arroyo, wore a bright red dress with a neck and back brace.
World boxing idol and Sarangani Rep. Manny Pacquiao, whose attendance in sessions was spotty, also appeared in a bid to rally anti-RH lawmakers.
The majority caucus started at around 11:30 a.m. at the Kalayaan Hall in Malacañang and Aquino arrived at around 1 p.m. coming from a Cabinet meeting.
Ang Kasangga party-list Rep. Teodorico Haresco described the President’s talk with them as “diplomatic, empathic and principled.”
“He described how disproportionate the government resources are to the fast-growing population,” Haresco said.
Quezon City Rep. Winston Castelo said Aquino cited personal experiences that made him push for the RH bill, including his meeting with a widow left with six children after her soldier husband died in battle.
“He never pressured us. He said we should vote according to our conscience,” Castelo said.
Lagman said Aquino stressed to them that their vote entails “the courage to make a decision as leaders of their respective constituencies, not to be cowed by intimidation of reprisal at the polls.”
Earlier, Isabela Rep. Giorgiddi Aggabao, a senior lawmaker allied with the administration and a former prosecutor in former chief justice Renato Corona’s impeachment trial, said many committed not only for the termination of interpellation, but also for the approval of the RH bill.
At the very least, he said at least 200 House members pledged support for Aquino’s request to have the bill - which the Catholic Church is fiercely opposing - passed.
Growing support
In a statement over the weekend, the Human Development and Poverty Reduction (HDPR) Cabinet Cluster - which consists of 20 government agencies dealing with poverty and development - had endorsed strongly Aquino’s pro-RH position.
The cluster said it is “deeply concerned with the long-term implications the absence of such a bill would have on poverty and development in this country.”
“Already, our maternal mortality rate (MMR) has gone up to 221 per 100,000 live births, our worst MDG to date. We now have the worst poverty situation in the entire ASEAN 4 region and, with one of the highest birth rates in Southeast Asia, the dubious distinction of being the 12th most populous country in the world,” it stated.
The cluster emphasized the urgent need for responsible parenthood to counter the country’s soaring population growth and the disturbing social consequences that have resulted from it.
“If the RH bill is passed, it is the poor and the marginalized who would most benefit from greater access to healthcare services. Quite simply, the bill is rights-based, pro-health and pro-poor,” assistant secretary Lila Ramos-Shahani, head of communications of the Human Development and Poverty Reduction Cabinet Cluster under the Communications Group Office, said.
Five of the country’s largest business groups have also issued a unified statement calling on the Senate and the House of Representatives to “pass into law without further delay the Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health and Population and Development Act of 2011, as embodied in House Bill 4244 and Senate Bill 2865.”
In their statement, the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP), Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (FINEX), Makati Business Club (MBC), Management Association of the Philippines (MAP), and Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) also reiterated that they “strongly believe government must encourage responsible parenthood and promote family planning as a direct strategy for poverty reduction and maternal and child healthcare.”
The businessmen emphasized the primacy of giving parents the final say on matters of family planning and providing them with the means to realize what they believe is best for their families.
Meanwhile, the strong expression of support from the business community for the passage of an RH law was mirrored by the findings of a survey conducted by the MBC among its members.
The survey results revealed that as much as 80.2 percent of the respondents answered “yes” in support of the passage of HB 4244. Only 18.6 percent said “no,” and 1.2 percent gave no answer to the survey conducted from Aug. 1 to 3, 2012, via fax and online.
Social justice
Two former secretaries of the Department of Health (DOH) said the RH bill can address the deteriorating health of Filipinos.
According to Dr. Alberto Romualdez, legislators should look at the possible impacts of the RH bill on the country’s public health system which is now marked by many young and poor women who die of childbirth and pregnancy-related complications.
For her part, Dr. Esperanza Cabral said that poor families are on the disadvantaged side in a society that has no law on reproductive health because they get to have more children than they want.
“The passage of RH bill is a matter of social justice... If we want easier access to health care for everybody, there is no way we should not pass the RH bill,” she said. - With Delon Porcalla, Sheila Crisostomo, Evelyn Macairan, Mayen Jaymalin, Helen Flores


http://tribune.net.ph/index.php/headlines/item/2604-repro-bill-clash-won%E2%80%99t-rock-senate-leadership


Repro bill clash won’t rock Senate leadership
• Written by Angie M. Rosales
• Tuesday, 07 August 2012 00:00
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The emotional sparks flying from the controversial reproductive health (RH) bill will not be enough to cause a shakeup in the Senate leadership, a known proponent of the birth control measure said yesterday.
As tirades against key Senate leaders heightened in various social networking sites following their show of support to the church-led rally against the bill over the weekend, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III remain steadfast in their respective position to thumb down the measure.
“My position in the RH Bill is personal to me. I’m not convincing anybody to join me. It’s a matter of faith, conscience and above all, it involves my notion of what is in the highest interest of the country. So, that’s it. But I will not impose this on my colleagues here. I have not talked to any one of them. We are going to handle the problem without any obstacle or barrier. Let each one of us decide his position on this issue,” Enrile said.
“We are not using our position to block anything or be a barrier to the passage of any measure here. Like any member of this Chamber, we want to exhaust all the issues possible in order to come up with the correct position, correct decision,” he added.
Enrile’s comments were in response to the statement of Sotto over the weekend saying that he will not think twice in resigning his post as majority leader if only to prove to critics that he’s not using his position to block the approval of RH bill in the Senate.
“There’s no need for anybody to withdraw from his position. Of course, we are replaceable. Anytime I can be replaced as Senate President also but as far as I’m concerned, I want him to continue as majority floor leader,” he said.
“Well, he’s my majority leader. I have enough confidence in him to be objective about it but each one of us, we have individual perception and notion of what is good for the country so we respect each other’s position. There’s no need for him to resign,” Enrile said.
Sotto, for his part, appeared poised to prove his critics wrong, even vowing to expose those alleged moneyed lobby groups when he takes his turn on the floor to discuss his issues in opposing the bill.
The majority leader bared plans of delivering a four-part speech to lengthily discuss what the measure is all about.
“They have presented all kinds of information and now it’s our turn to be heard and I’ll start by Wednesday. Hopefully, I can finish this is two session days unless there are other issues that the members of the Senate would like to take up, we can go to the period of amendments,” he said.
“We are going to expose those who are really behind this, the people behind this, the organization behind this and the money they are spending for it and hopefully the people will understand it. What we are against is declaring contraceptives as essential medicine,” he said.
He added that the bill contained a camoufladged consent to abortion by including post-abortion implication, and then sex education up to grade 5.
In the budget hearing held yesterday Sotto related that even the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) agreed that the ideal population growth rate for the country is 2.1 percent to have a sustainable development, and the actual rate is only 1.9 percent,” he explained.
Sotto remain unperturbed by the criticisms hurled at him, merely responding to them by saying that “when you are doing something right, expect to be attacked; when you are doing something right for God, expect to be attacked viciously and that’s why I’ve already anticipated what they’re saying (against me).”
Sen. Panfilo Lacson, one of the authors of the Senate version of the bill, remained optimistic on the measure being approved eventually in the upper chamber.
Lacson said that had there been 12 or more senators who attended the anti-RH rally over the weekend, then there’s no point to further debate on the issue or even amend some of its provisions as the bill will likely be “dead in the water, definitely.”
While they’re of opposing views on the bill, Lacson said disagreements in the passage of the bill would not suffice to cause for a reorganization in the Senate or prompt him to withdraw support from the current leaders of the upper chamber.
Following yesterday’s briefing by the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) on the 2013 national expenditure program (NEP) at the upper chamber, Sen. Franklin Drilon disputed claims on purported allocation of some P13 billion in the proposed P2-trillion 2013 national budget for the acquisition of condoms and other forms of contraceptives.
Drilon, chairman of the Senate finance committee, told reporters that he has not seen the itemized budget proposal of the Department of Health (DOH) where the so-called condom funds will be tucked in.
“But I do not think there is P13 billion there. I doubt it very much. That (P13-billion condom fund) is being talked around… I would like to look at the DOH budget in more detail,” he said.
Drilon refused to state his position on RH bill stating that the DoH is yet to make a formal presentation of its 2013 budget before his committee, thus, he could not say at this time if he would vote for or against the proposed P13 billion condom-contraceptives fund in the P2-trillion appropriations bill to be submitted to the Senate after its House approval.
A briefer provided by the office of Budget Secretary Butch Abad to the Senate listed multi-billion-peso fundings for various government-subsidized universal health care programs under the DOH, including: P2.5 billion for “Family Health and Responsible Parenting;” P2.8 billion for “Doctors to the Barrios Program;” P1.9 billion for “Expanded Program on Immunization;” P1 billion for TB (tuberculosis0 Control; P1 billion for “National Pharmaceutical Policy Development” in 1,377 local government units: P570 million for “elimination of diseases;” and, P321 million for “other infectious diseases” including treatment of 6,056 HIV infected patients.
In the same proceedings, National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) director general Arsenio Balicasan said that the rapid population growth clearly constrains the country’s ability to move to a higher long-term economic growth.
“The intention of the bill is really to provide opportunities also for the poor people to manage their own family size and to be able to provide their children with better education through health and education investment,” Balicasan said.

http://www.manilatimes.net/index.php/news/top-stories/28514-more-groups-seek-passage-of-rh-bill

More groups seek passage of RH bill
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Published on 07 August 2012
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Written by Sammy Martin Reporter and Neil A. Alcober, Correspondent

AFP Photo

MORE religious and business groups on Monday expressed their support for House Bill 4244, also known as the reproductive health (RH) bill, ahead of the chamber’s scheduled vote on whether to continue debates on the contentious measure.

In a statement, the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches (PCEC), a network of more than 30,000 evangelical congregations in the country, called on legislators to end the debates and vote for the bill’s passage.

“We believe that the RH bill is pro-life. Life begins at fertilization, and the promotion of the use of artificial forms of contraception does not take away life, for life begins at the union of the sperm and the egg cells,” the statement said.

“We believe [that] the RH bill promotes a responsible lifestyle. As we have stated in our previous statements, God had created man in His own image [Genesis 1:26-27]. When He commanded Adam and Eve to ‘be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it,’ He gave it to a world population of two. Now that the world population has escalated to seven billion, all the more we are to fulfill the second part of the mandate, which is to subdue the earth. Responsible parenthood should be one of our responses to this call, and this would entail determining the number of children that we would raise in decent standards,” it added.

“We believe that the purpose of marriage is not procreation alone, but also to enjoy the divinely instituted intimacy between husband and wife,” the statement said.

We believe [that] abortion is a sin and should not in any way be tolerated. We support the RH bill because it recognizes such reality, and does not promote or legalize abortion,” it added.

“We believe that the RH bill fulfills the responsibilities of the government in its duties to promote good and restrain evil. The bill is one of the ways in which the government aids in the development of our countrymen by helping them actualize their duties in the family. People have the right to be educated and it is unconscionable to keep the people in ignorance,” the statement said.

Congress urged
Like the PCEC, several business groups also expressed their support for the bill and urged Congress to pass it.

In a reiteration of their 2010 joint statement, the Employers’ Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP), the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (Finex), the Makati Business Club (MBC), the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP), and the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) said that they “strongly believe [that the] government must encourage responsible parenthood and promote family planning as a direct strategy for poverty reduction and maternal and child healthcare.”

“The active role envisioned for government in the promotion of family planning is in keeping with the expressed desire of a significant majority of Filipinos as manifested in major national surveys,” they added.

The groups emphasized the primacy of giving parents the final say on matters of family planning and providing them with the means to realize what they believe is best for their families.

“While various parties and interested sectors may provide advice and guidance to parents on alternative choices regarding family size and the means to achieve their desired objective, we believe [that] these are decisions ultimately for the parents themselves to make,” they said.

“Such a focused policy of family planning must provide lowest-cost access for the very poor to the services and materials to implement their free and informed choice,” the groups added.

The groups clarified, though, that while they are against any measure that “limits free choice, and mandates the means to implement such choice,” they are “unequivocally opposed to any measure that condones abortion in any way.”

Also on Monday, the House of Representatives decided to terminate debates on the measure, which lasted almost two years.

Through a viva voce vote, majority of House members voted in favor of the motion made by House Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales 2nd of Mandaluyong City to terminate debates on HB 4244, or the Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health and Population and Development Act of 2011.

As a result, the bill, which mandates the state to provide natural and artificial methods of family planning including condoms, intrauterine devices and pills which are safe, legal and effective, will now be subjected to a period of amendments before going on second and third reading approval.

With a report from Llanesca T. Panti

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/244169/house-ends-rh-debate


House ends RH debate
Church aghast as bill nears approval
By Leila B. Salaverria, Michael Lim Ubac
Philippine Daily Inquirer
4:05 am | Tuesday, August 7th, 2012

DEBATES OVER. Lawmakers attend a session at the House of Representatives Monday, opting to end debate on the controversial Reproductive Health Bill. AP
With resounding “ayes,” the contentious debates on the reproductive health (RH) bill came to an abrupt end Monday in the House of Representatives, just hours after President Benigno Aquino summoned congressmen to the Palace and pleaded to bring the measure forward to its second stage.

This means the controversial population control measure would now go through a period of amendments, before it is put to a vote on second reading on the floor.

For the first time since 188 congressmen agreed to impeach then Chief Justice Renato Corona in blitzkrieg fashion last December in a Japanese restaurant, lawmakers went to lunch in the Palace Monday to attend to yet another priority administration project.

There, they heard Mr. Aquino make what one attendee described as a “diplomatic appeal”—no, the President did not issue marching orders according to this congressman—to 182 lawmakers present during the two-and-a-half hour meeting to end the interpellations in the House that had bogged down progress in discussions of the bill.

Back in the House later, the majority of the 231 members present—including former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Sarangani Rep. Manny Pacquiao who both oppose the RH bill—yelled “aye!” when asked for a viva voce, or voting orally.

The vote came 24 hours ahead of schedule, short-circuiting attempts by the Catholic Church hierarchy to mount yet another protest against the measure originally set for decision Tuesday. Church leaders have threatened to campaign in next year’s election against lawmakers favoring the RH bill.

‘God have mercy on him’

Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco moved for nominal voting in an apparent bid to identify those favoring the bill, but withdrew his motion after it was largely ignored as the evening session broke up.

“God have mercy on him and on us,” said Fr. Melvin Castro, executive director of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines-Episcopal Commission on Family and Life, of the President’s action just two days after the Church led an anti-RH rally at the Edsa Shrine attended by a crowd of about 10,000. He warned that the Church would not take the move lightly, saying “2013 is just around the corner.”

In the upper chamber, however, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, who attended Saturday’s rally, announced he had questions about the bill, calling for the reopening of interpellation. Enrile is against the bill.

Senate Majority Leader Tito Sotto, who is also against the measure, said the House action “does not affect the Senate, as far as I’m concerned.”

Proponents of the bill in the Senate have complained that the leadership was sitting on the measure, threatening to derail administration plans to enact the bill into law this year to afford the poor access to maternal health care and family planning methods.

One opponent of the bill, Anwaray Rep. Florencio Noel, said the period of amendments—the next stage in the lawmaking process—could be equally contentious. This is where compromises may be made and battles on corrections would take place.

Opponents of the bill immediately opposed the formal motion to end the debates when Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II introduced it on the floor.

Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez complained that the original agreement was that the vote would be held Tuesday, adding he still had many questions to ask.

Manila Rep. Amado Bagatsing objected that the No. 6 in the date Monoday—August 6—was unlucky because it was associated with the devil. Batangas Rep. Hermilando Mandanas and Zambales Rep. Milagros Magsaysay wailed against the move as well.

Despite this, the vote to terminate the debates pushed through. By 6:07 p.m., it was all over.

Conscience vote

The decision to terminate the debates was made during a meeting with the President, where he shared his thoughts on responsible parenthood with 182 lawmakers, consisting of both supporters and opponents of the measure, according to participants.

Gonzales said the President told lawmakers that the RH bill had been through so much debate and everybody was already familiar with the issues.

Mr. Aquino said the debates should end, and the lawmakers could move on to the next stage to perfect the measure.

But the President also made it clear that he was not telling lawmakers to vote for the bill. He just wanted an end to the debates, which had been going on for years, Gonzales said.

“Everybody agreed. More than that, the consensus was instead of doing it [Tuesday], might was well do it today [Monday],” Gonzales said in a phone interview, though he added later that Mandanas had dissented during the Palace meet.

He said Parañaque Rep. Roilo Golez proposed moving up the vote, noting that this was a good idea since the situation in the gallery on the scheduled vote today would probably be tense after interest groups announced plans to troop to the House during the vote.

Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, a staunch proponent of the bill, said that the President had asked lawmakers to cast a “conscience vote,” to summon the courage to decide as leaders, undeterred by threats of reprisals at the polls, and address health problems and the backlog in education, aggravated by a ballooning population.

Prochildren by choice

Lagman also said the President was for “children by choice, not by chance.”

Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone said among the 182 lawmakers at the Palace lunch were Minority Leader Danilo Suarez and 10 others in the opposition, along with members of the ruling Liberal Party, the Nacionalista Party, the Nationalist People’s Coalition, Lakas-CMD and some party-list groups.

“Both pro- and anti-RH were there,” Gonzales said.

Evardone, a member of the ruling party, made it clear that Mr. Aquino did not pressure House members to speed up the floor debates. “No, in fact, they are all in favor of terminating the period of debates,” he said.

He said that the President was “very diplomatic.”

“He was not very forceful. He did not issue a marching order. He was just appealing, but I think it was a masterstroke on his part to make that bold move to appeal to all the members of Congress regardless of whether you are a supporter or anti-RH,” said Evardone. With reports from Cathy C. Yamsuan and Kristine L. Alave

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