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Date Posted: 02:51:02 08/10/12 Fri
Author: IMRD
Subject: Aug 7-12 , 2012 news

http://manilastandardtoday.com/2012/08/07/conscience-vote-wins/

‘Conscience vote’ wins
By Maricel Cruz | Posted on August 07, 2012 | 12:01am | 1,312 views

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House ends RH debate as ayes overwhelm nays in
The House of Representatives on Monday voted overwhelmingly to end the plenary debates on the Reproductive Health bill, setting the stage for a vote on 2nd reading and dealing a blow to the Catholic Church, which has lobbied heavily against the measure.
Voting viva voce, the lawmakers carried the motion of House Leader Neptali Gonzales II to end the period of debates on the consolidated version of the bill, which will be known as the Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health and Population and Development Act of 2011, if it is passed.

Pass it now! Women from the Akbayan Party express their support for the Reproductive Health bill in front of the House of Representatives. MANNY PALMERO
The supporters of the bill threw the opposition off balance by pushing for the termination of the debates Monday instead of Tuesday as scheduled. Some 249 of the 285 lawmakers were present, including former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who opposes the bill.
Gonzales said the decision to move the vote up was made at a caucus in the Palace by Liberal Party leaders and members. President Benigno Aquino III met earlier in the day with some 182 lawmakers in a bid to push the bill forward. The closed-door meeting lasted about an hour.
With Monday’s vote, Gonzales said, the House will form a special committee to work on the amendments to the bill for second reading, which is expected in the next few days.
But in the plenary, Navotas Rep. Tobias Tiangco demanded that they hold a nominal vote, causing a suspension of the session.
The anti-RH lawmakers led by Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, Batangas Rep. Hermilando Mandanas, Manila Rep. Amado Bagatsing, and Zambales Rep. Maria Milagros Magsaysay accused the House leaders of rushing to end the plenary debates that began in May 2011.
Rodriguez said he had yet to finish questioning the bill’s authors, while Bagatsing said it was unlucky to vote on Aug. 6 because that was the number of the devil.
Magsaysay accused the Palace of railroading the bill’s approval and asked why lawmakers were in a hurry to end the debates that started more than a year ago. She also said the decision to move up the vote by a day was a sign that the House was under Malacanang’s thumb.
The House leadership just showed that now that Congress is under the Executive branch and is not a co-equal branch,” she said.
But the 11 members of the minority who met with the President, led by Minority Leader Danilo Suarez, Occidental Mindoro Rep. Amita Villarosa, and Davao del Sur Rep. Mark Cagas, also agreed to end the period of debate, said Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone, a member of Mr. Aquino’s Liberal Party.
Evardone also said the President had assured lawmakers at Monday’s lunch meeting that he would “respect divergent views” when Congress moved to discuss the proposed amendments to the bill.
Muntinlupa City Rep. Rodolfo Biazon, meanwhile, accused the anti-RH lawmakers of trying to derail the bill by asking repetitive questions during the plenary debates.
He said Congress needed to come up with a national policy on reproductive health, and that the Catholic Church should be able to respect its mandate.
The presiding speaker, Camarines Sur Rep. Arnulfo Fuentebella, said Monday’s vote did not reflect the merits or demerits of the bill, but only whether the House would end the period of debates.
Earlier, the bill’s principal author, Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, said the President had suggested that the members of the House vote according to their conscience.
Lagman said that would mean the lawmakers would have to find the courage to make a decision and not to be cowed by intimidation of the threat of reprisals at the polls.
“The President also cautioned that the bahala na attitude results in inordinately large families, and that presidential prescription adopts the call for children by choice, not by chance,” Lagman said.
Mr. Aquino “expressed his desire that Congress move on to the next step in the legislative process,” presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said.
“The President echoed the view that the responsible parenthood measure had been discussed thoroughly over the pass several years,” Lacierda said.
“The President expressed his opinion on the…bill and had a healthy discussion with congressmen with different persuasions and positions. All sides were heard and considered. Even minority congressmen and those opposed to the measure were given the opportunity to air their side.”
The build-up to this week’s vote was marked by intense lobbying on both sides.
Gonzales said the sugestion to move the vote forward to Monday actually came from Parañaque Rep. Roilo Golez, an anti-RH congressman, to avoid “an acrimonious environment.”
“It was the consensus that we better avoid the clash between the pro- and anti-RH supporters in Tuesday’s voting. Baka magkabatuhan pa diyan,” Gonzales said, referring to the possibility of violence from either camp.
At the session hall, House security separated the pro- and anti-RH supporters. The purple-clad pro-RH supporters were seated at the North Gallery, while the anti-RH supporters wearing red sat at the South Gallery.
Mrs. Arroyo, in a red suit, was accompanied by her sons Camarines Sur Rep. Diosdado Macapagal and Ang Galing Pinoy Rep. Juan Miguel Arroyo.
Gonzales said he could not say when the amendments to the bill would be scheduled.
“Let’s take it one day at a time,” he said.
Earlier, Liberal Party Senator Franklin Drilon said the Senate would await the results of the House vote before proceeding with its version of the bill.
Drilon said the Senate terminated its plenary debates when it adjourned in May.
“In the Senate, we are in the period of amendments. My position is we vote on the Senate version once the House would act on the RH bill,” he said.
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, who is against the bill, wants to reopen the period of debates.
Also on Monday, the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches, a network of more than 30,000 evangelical congregations, reiterated its call for the immediate consolidation and passing of House Bill 4244, more commonly known as the reproductive health bill.
“We call on our legislators to end the debates and to vote for its approval. We wholeheartedly support President Aquino’s statement that ‘Perhaps the debates should end and Congress can decide, once and for all, on the responsible parenthood bill,” said Bishop Efraim Tendero, national director of the group.
In contrast to the Catholic Church, the group said the RH bill was “pro-life, pro-development and pro-poor.” With Christine F. Herrera, Joyce Pangco Pañares and Macon Ramos-Araneta

http://manilastandardtoday.com/2012/08/10/overpopulation-is-a-fallacy/

Overpopulation is a fallacy
By Emil Jurado | Posted on August 10, 2012 | 12:01am | 2,140 views

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PRESIDENT Aquino tells us that the flood problem of Metro Manila can’t be solved overnight. He promises, though, that it will be solved next week. Is he joking?
Of course flood will recede unless we have more monsoon rain. It is receding, not because the President says so, but because it is in its nature.
Many areas of Metro Manila get submerged, rain or no rain, because they are below sea level. Some 30 or so esteros built by the Spaniards are no longer usable because squatters have turned them into one septic tank.
Mr. President, it’s the impact of climate change and global warming that’s upon us. We can only mitigate this impact if leaders like you have the necessary political will. The buck stops at your door. Are you up to it?
* * *
Anti-life advocates love to quote United Nations statistics to buttress their argument for the passage of the reproductive health bill, euphemistically called by the President as the responsible parenthood bill. It’s really population control which the UN uses in furtherance of Washington’s foreign policy in controlling the population of underdeveloped countries like the Philippines.
America wants to monopolize our natural and mineral resources for its own interest. Records show that after further studies, the growing population of underdeveloped countries are prejudicial to American interests. Younger people are more difficult to control than the elderly. Young people are also more vocal in resisting foreign intrusion.
The next question now is this: Is the Philippines that overpopulated so much so that the birth rate needs to be controlled through a state policy for contraception?
Empirical data show that the most populous country, China, is now an economic giant. Same goes for Indonesia, which is the most populous Muslim country. Here at home, the National Capital Region is the most progressive because it is the most populous.
And then look at the countries with a small population – Ethiopia, the Sudan, Somalia and Uganda. They are impoverished!
No less that the director general of the National Economic and Development Authority, Arsenio Balisacan, told the Senate that the UN had set a 2.1-percent fertility rate in the country. Our population growth is 1.98 percent. In other words, we are below the growth rate acceptable to the UN. We are thus not overpopulated even by UN standards!
The claim of the pro-RH groups is nothing but baloney.
As I have said, the RH bill is not only a religious issue. It is social, economic and political as well. The fortunes of politicians will rise and fall on these issue.
Yes, there are many of my colleagues supporting the RH bill. But look at their profiles. They are either conscripted media people and opinion-writers, and they are not Catholic. Most of the women opinion-writers are either trying very hard to be read by being anti-Catholic and anti-life, or they belong to the group of liberated women-feminist movement against dogma.
* * *
President Aquino continues to resist proposals to change even the economic provisions of the Constitution. I thought he studied economics at Ateneo. Why can’t he appreciate that some parts of our Constitution are archaic? Is it because the charter was framed during his late mother’s incumbency?
The World Bank says foreign direct investments in the Philippines amounted to only $1.6 billion in 2011, compared to Indonesia’s $18.26 billion, and Vietnam’s $14 billion. This simply means we are getting only the crumbs.
* * *
The persons or groups behind the attempt to smuggle 465,000 bags of rice imported from India and Vietnam tried to pass on the blame to some offices at Customs and the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority. My gulay, they even tried to drag into the mess the BOC’s X-Ray Inspection Project, insinuating that those manning the X-ray machines were either sleeping on the job or in cahoots with those behind the failed smuggling attempt.
It’s true that smuggling cannot simply happen. As somebody who covered Customs for years, I know for a fact that behind any smuggling attempt, there are entrenched smuggling syndicates in cahoot with Customs. While hundreds of containers of highly dutiable goods pass through Customs daily, only one or two containers are sorted to show the public that Customs is doing its job. That is a neat trick.
Those who tried to point the finger at the X-Ray Inspect Project at Subic apparently didn’t do their homework. Those who are familiar with the piers know that the XIP does not and cannot subject to scanning bulk or break bulk cargoes since it has no jurisdiction over such shipments. In the first place, these are visible to the naked eye as distinguished from containerized shipments.
Furthermore, there is no X-Ray machine at the Subic National Security Depot where the bags of rice from India and Vietnam were placed for safekeeping upon arrival.
What the Senate investigating committees should look into are more smuggling of oil, poultry and meat, foods, onions, sugar and other highly-dutiable items. The rice smuggling attempt at Subic is simply the tip of the iceberg.
More importantly, Senate should look into the connivance of Customs officials and personnel making a mockery of P-Noy’s Daang Matuwid policy.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/247075/rh-bill-author-assures-freedom-of-choice

RH bill author assures freedom of choice
By Cathy C. Yamsuan
Philippine Daily Inquirer
5:33 am | Friday, August 10th, 2012

Senator Pia Cayetano. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
The reproductive health (RH) bill offers choices and will not force an individual to use a family planning option that goes against his or her ethical or religious beliefs, according to the bill’s principal sponsor in the Senate.

Senator Pia Cayetano, chairperson of the Senate committee on women, youth and family relations, is apparently fed up with claims that the RH bill would promote abortion, promiscuity and even teach minors age-inappropriate concepts about sex.

“Anti-RH advocates often state that people are being forced to adopt a certain type of family planning method. Or that health care providers will be forced to recommend certain kinds,” Cayetano noted in her blog after Senate leaders said they would reopen the period of interpellation on the contentious measure.

Attention has again been focused on the bill after Catholic leaders led a protest rally against the measure last Saturday during which prelates warned of fatal consequences if it were approved.

Alarm bells

Alarm bells rang louder when the House of Representatives ended its period of interpellation on the bill last Monday, a day ahead of schedule.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III, for instance, said they would reopen the interpellation on the bill so they could ask Cayetano more questions.

The Senate ended the interpellation of the bill last May during which senators spent countless session hours fielding questions and answers about it.

Cayetano fears the renewed campaign against the RH bill could derail what the Senate has achieved so far.

The senator insisted that the bill had gone through the process. “We had hearings, then we made our committee report… In fact, it took almost a year before the RH bill hurdled the interpellation period at the Senate,” she said.

“Every provision was explained, rehashed and clarified until it was blue in the face. I am not exaggerating,” she said.

All provisions explained

She now fears that all gains made by the Senate might be “overlooked, sometimes even abandoned altogether by those who mean to distort the meaning and purpose of the bill.”

Cayetano reiterated the following points in her blog posted on August 4:

•The RH bill respects the religious convictions and cultural beliefs of all.

“Those who do not want to use contraceptives are not being forced to. Each person is at liberty to decide for his or herself,” she said.

•That RH education would be age- and development-appropriate. The bill “will not teach a 10-year-old how to use condoms.”

Rather, it will ensure that children in school are provided “age-appropriate” sex education, including proper names for body parts and understanding the biological function of their bodies “such that they know that babies grow in mommy’s tummy and do not come out of bamboo trees,” she explained.

Lack of awareness

Cayetano said this lack of awareness could be partly responsible for the Philippines having the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Southeast Asia and cases of young children being sexually abused, sometimes by members of their own family.

•That the RH bill promotes both natural and artificial methods.

“Again, there is so much disinformation spreading that only artificial family planning shall be promoted under the RH bill. This is false,” she said.

•That contraceptives are safe and effective family planning tools.

“Like any medicine or medical device, all contraceptives shall be approved by a government authority, the Food and Drugs Administration. And like medicines, there will be respect for choices. Couples must decide what is best for them with the advice of their health care provider,” Cayetano said.

•That the RH bill will not indiscriminately distribute condoms to all.

Cayetano said the measure is much more than nationwide condom distribution. Providing mobile vehicles that would provide health care services especially in far-flung areas where health care is inaccessible is an urgent component of the measure, she said.

“The mobile health care unit is not a contraceptive ice cream truck,” the senator said.


http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=835475&publicationSubCategoryId=63


Population stunts Phl economy, says NEDA chief
(The Philippine Star) Updated August 07, 2012 12:00 AM Comments (12)



Manila, Philippines - Director-General Arsenio Balisacan of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) believes a rapidly increasing population is the reason the country’s economic growth has not surpassed neighboring countries in Asia.
In an interview yesterday at the Senate, Balisacan said the country’s population, growing at 1.98 percent, is constraining a higher, long-term growth.
“What we would really want to see is that we break away from that high dependence or high contribution of our young age population in the total population,” he said.
Balisacan said the government would want to see that the growth in population is coming from the labor force.
“In other words, there’s demographic transition. Basically, what happens in our neighbors (is) they were able to reduce their fertility rate such that their young age dependence portion of population will decrease, and in the future will lead to a faster increase in the labor force and that contributes to economic growth,” he said.
“And then of course with a lower fertility rate, parents particularly poor parents would be able to provide better education, better health, better nutrition for their children and that would make them highly productive adults 10-15 years from now when they join the labor force.”
Speaking at a budget hearing at the Senate, Balisacan pointed out the need to shift the demographics of growth to the working age group from the high-dependency group or those that cannot work yet.
“The issue is higher rapid fertility rate and the pattern of population growth,” he said.
“There is a need to shift from the high dependency group to the working age group.”
Balisacan said this would increase the labor force, which would then contribute to faster economic growth.
During yesterday’s hearing on the proposed P2.006-trillion budget for 2013, lawmakers asked the government’s economic team if population growth and inflation prevent the economy from expanding by the desired 7 percent to 8 percent rates.
The latest data from the National Statistics Office showed the total population of the Philippines grew by 15.83 million to 93.3 million in 2010 compared to the 2000 population of 76.51 million.
In 1990, the total population in the country was 60.70 million. – Christina Mendez, Iris Gonzales

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