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Date Posted: 20:44:16 08/01/12 Wed
Author: IMRD
Subject: August 2, 2012 news

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/241063/7-arroyo-allies-junk-rh-bill


7 Arroyo allies junk RH bill
Bishops welcome the former President to their cause
By Christian V. Esguerra, Jocelyn R. Uy
Philippine Daily Inquirer
12:05 am | Thursday, August 2nd, 2012
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Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo AP PHOTO
Like Batman in the hit movie “The Dark Knight Rises,” former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is emerging from the pits to help defuse fears of a population bomb.

Seven of Arroyo’s allies had withdrawn as authors of the controversial reproductive health (RH) bill that the Catholic Church vehemently opposes.

As such, the Pampanga representative has become the darling of the Church hierarchy, some of whose prelates were gifted with SUVs when she was the President but unfortunately had to give them up following a Senate inquiry.

Wearing a neck brace and lumbar support, Arroyo showed up for the first time in a year—the past eight months under hospital arrest on election sabotage charges—in the House on Tuesday.

The former President, who is being treated for a rare neck ailment, described her appearance there as a “dry run” for the crucial vote on August 7 on the RH bill. She said she would vote against the Malacañang-backed measure.

“This is an issue that she feels strongly about as a devout Catholic, although she never used her term in the presidency to push things her way,” House Minority Leader Danilo Suarez said Wednesday. “But now, as a member of Congress, she will be free to vote [with] her heart and her mind.”

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) announced Wednesday that it was opening its doors to Arroyo at a Mass prayer rally it was leading against the RH bill on Saturday at the Edsa Shrine.

“All anti-RH people are welcome to join us on Saturday,” said Fr. Melvin Castro, executive secretary of the CBCP Episcopal Commission on Family and Life.

“Regardless of the political party or affiliation, every single vote versus the RH bill is welcome for us,” he said in a phone interview.

Suarez also announced yesterday that he and six other lawmakers had withdrawn as coauthors of House Bill No. 4244, which essentially seeks to bring down the country’s population growth rate. The turnaround of the seven, brings to 20 the number of congressmen opposing the bill.

Turning water into wine

The CBCP earlier expressed confidence that as many as 140 congressmen were opposed to the RH bill, with only 49 in favor of the measure.

Representative Edcel Lagman, chief architect of HB 4244, ridiculed the CBCP position, saying “Catholic bishops extrapolate the votes against the RH bill like turning water into wine.”

“The bishops forget that the miracle of life should not result in the death of the mother, and the quality of life of children must be enhanced by empowering parents, couples and women to freely and responsibly determine the number and spacing of their children,” he said in a statement.

http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/368214/7-opposition-solons-abandon-rh-bill

7 Opposition Solons Abandon RH Bill
By BEN R. ROSARIO
August 1, 2012, 6:40pm
MANILA, Philippines --- Seven opposition congressmen resigned in mass as co-authors of the controversial Reproductive Health bill, causing the bill’s advocates some concern as they prepared for plenary voting on the measure on Tuesday.
Minority Leader Danilo Suarez announced their withdrawal of support to House Bill 4244 as Catholic church leaders conducted “man-to-man” conferences with other authors of the bill to step up their campaign against the measure
The House is to vote on August 7 whether to terminate or continue with the deliberations on the bill.
Aside from Suarez, the minority solons who sent Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. letters of withdrawal of authorship are Elmer Panotes (Lakas-CMD, Camarines Norte); Reena Concepcion Obillo (Una ang Pamilya); Orlando Fua (Lakas-CMD, Siquijor); Nasser Pangandaman (AA-Kasosyo); Mohammed Hussein Pangandaman (Lakas-CMD, Lanao del Sur); and Pastor Alcover (ANAD partylist).
“Some of us have always opposed the RH bill and will simply continue to do so. But others among us were not only supporters but even co-authors of the bill,” Suarez said.
The withdrawal leaves only eight members of the House opposition as co-authors.
Suarez said the remaining eight legislators have yet to re-examine their stand and may change their minds during the debates.
Isabela Rep. Rodolfo Albano, a co-author, said he has not made up his mind.
Suarez said the decision to withdraw support is not an offshoot of former President and now Congerssman Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s staunch support for the Catholic stand.
“I understand that Congresswoman Arroyo plans to cast her first vote next week, after so many months, on an issue that is close to her heart, namely, the RH Bill. This is an issue that she feels strongly about as a devout Catholic, although she never used her term in the Presidency to push things her way. But now, as a member of Congress, she will be free to vote her heart and her mind,” Suarez said.
Batangas Rep. Hermilando Mandanas said several members of the House majority were also reconsidering their position supporting the bill.
Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, one of the principal authors of the bill, said they remain confident that the church’s claim of waning support for the measure has no basis.
“The legislators are fully aware of the realities on the ground about gripping mass poverty spawned by an inordinately huge population growth rate because couples and women in the marginalized sectors do not have access to correct reproductive health information and effective supplies and services,” said Lagman.
He said the Catholic bishops‘ survey that 140 congressmen will vote against the measure could be likened to a miracle of “turning water into wine.”
Suarez said only eight out of the 28 members of the minority bloc are still co-authors of the measure.
As co-authors, congressmen are expected to vote for HB 4244 which sets a reproductive health policy that Catholic church considers adverse to its “pro-life” stance.
In the Senate, proponents of the Reproductive Health bill are frustrated over the refusal of some lawmakers who are staunch critics of the measure to allow discussions on the health bill.
Sen. Pia Cayetano said she is getting impatient and feels bad that the Philippines has always been in the forefront “when it comes to policies, legislation regarding women’s issues” but is having difficulty passing a bill that seeks to provide ample health care particularly to Filipino families.
“I’ve heard worse stories in other countries (that want to pass a similar bill) so I just feel bad that the Philippines is always in the forefront when it comes to policies, legislation and when it comes to women’s issues, normally, nangunguna naman tayo (we’re always ahead),” said Cayetano who heads the Senate Committee on Health and Demography.
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III earlier vowed to give the bill a thorough scrutiny despite President Benigno S. Aquino III’s equivocal support for it.
Enrile debunked Cayetano’s claim that the bill is already “ripe for passage” saying contentious issues concerning the measure should be resolved.
He said the health measure should not be likened to a banana or a mango fruit “which emits a fragrance when it’s ripe for harvest.”
“They think it is already ripe for passage but not for me. The measure is not like a banana or a mango which emits a fragrance when it’s already ripe,” Enrile said recently in an interview.
Malacanang, however, is hoping that when the time comes to vote on the responsible parenthood bill, lawmakers would make the decision based on the future of Filipino children, not their political ambitions in 2013.
Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda yesterday reminded that the congressional vote on the measure is not about winning another elective post.
“This should not be a vote as to whether will I be re-elected if I don’t vote on this bill or not. It should be a vote on the future of our country, on the future of the children that we bring into the world,” Lacierda said in a Palace press briefing.
He cited that a recent opinion poll showed 70 percent of the Filipinos support the measure. “We would hope they would consider the views of the people, take note of the survey on why there is a need for responsible parenthood bill,” he said.
An official of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said Arroyo is welcome to join Saturday’s prayer rally against the bill at the EDSA Shrine.
“All anti-RH people are welcome to join us on Saturday,” CBCP-Episcopal Commission on Family and Life (ECFL) Executive Secretary Fr. Melvin Castro said.
(Additional reports from Hannah L. Torregoza, Genalyn D. Kabiling, Leslie Aquino and Charissa M. Luci)


http://www.tribune.net.ph/index.php/headlines/item/2356-rh-passage-is-for-country-kids%E2%80%99-future%E2%80%94noy

RH passage is for country, kids’ future—Noy
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• Thursday, 02 August 2012 00:00
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Aquino flexes muscle vs CBCP, goes all out for Repro bill
With the Catholic Church leaders flexing their muscle with a show of force through a planned huge mass protest against the Reproductive Health (RH) bill renamed by the Palace as the Responsible Parenthood (RP) bill, President Aquino, speaking through his official spokesman, Edwin Lacierda, took a new approach in portraying the Church and its leaders as unpatriotic with congressmen who will pass the RH bill as true Filipino patriots who think only of the country and the Filipino’s future — his future children.
Days before the much anticipated congressional showdown determining the fate of controversial bill referred to by the President as the RP bill, presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda hinted at a scenario where the Church would portray congressmen who would cast a vote in the service of the country, could face an imminent blacklisting by a Catholic Church group seen in recent weeks as threatening to dump legislators in time for the 2013 midterm election.
At a press briefing ysterday, Lacierda also urged the members of the House of Representatives to “think about the great service they will be giving the country” when they finally decide on the much-talked about bill primarily designed to promote and promulgate provisions on safe sex and population control.
Sought for a categorical comment on how the RH bill would affect them come 2013 midterm polls, which is less than a year away, Lacierda stated that the issue shouldn’t in any way be seen as something that would strip them of the votes. Instead, congressmen were told to give prominence to the measure’s impact itself.
“This should not be a vote as to whether ‘Will I be re-elected if I don’t vote for this bill or not? This should be a vote on the future of our country; on the future of the children that we bring into the world,” said Lacierda.
In what appears to be an indication that Malacañang realizes the tough task of getting some 285 politicians in the lower house to ignore Church warning against pro-RH legislators, Lacierda said: “I hope the congressmen realize that this is a vote on the future of our nation.”
Aquino has specifically announced his preference on the passage of the Palace’s version docketed as House Bill 4244, also known as the controversial RH bill.
However, Church leaders have been strongly opposing HB 4244, or any other similar legislative bills.
Claiming the upperhand, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said it was able to secure more than enough supporters at the lower house, adding that RH bill will certainly be junked as soon the proposed measure gets to be voted upon.
But even before “crushing” the Aquino-backed House proposal, the CBCP would engage in activities where “those who haven’t made up their mind are welcome to join us.”
Malacañang has been receiving regular updates from time to time and reports since Monday that saw more congressmen opting to junk the RH bill on strong clamor from the prelates. House members seal the fate of the controversial bill next week.
As this developed, Lacierda insisted on what they earlier stated that had the President in consultation with top religious leaders from whom they allegedly got some inputs which form part and parcel of HB4244.
The CBCP, however, denied having been asked by Aquino on the bill.
Allies of Aquino yesterday insisted that the controversial RH bill, junked by the Catholic Church, should be passed by Congress and signed into law.
Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, who was at the House of Representatives during a briefing of the Development Budget Coordination Committee before the House Appropriations panel, said that pro-RH lawmakers have the full backing of the administration.
“The President has spoken. He has been clear. He believes that couples, or even individuals, who want to manage the number or have the proper spacing concerning their children, have to be given information and resources to make that decision. We are his alter-ego so we stand behind the President in this issue,” Abad told the House committee on appropriations in response to Akbayan Rep. Walden Bello’s question on whether they share the president’s position on the RH bill.
He was referring to the statement of Aquino during the State of the Nation Address (Sona) that he was supporting “responsible parenthood.”
Bello is one of the authors of the RH bill which Speaker Feliciano Belmonte said would be “terminated” next week.
The RH bill mandates the state to provide natural and artificial methods of family planning including condoms, intrauterine devices and pills.
Bello maintained that the proposed P2.006 trillion budget for 2013 will be put to naught without the RH bill. The proposed national budget has allotted P698.8 billion for social services, P511.1 billion for economic services, P346.1 billion for general public service, P339.9 billion for debt servicing and P89.7 billion for defense.
“All of the government programs in the budget will be a band-aid solution if there is no responsible parenthood,” Bello added.
The House is set to terminate plenary debates on the RH measure on Aug. 7, which according to its critics would pave the way for its dismissal.
According to House Majority Leader Mandaluyong Rep. Neptali Gonzales II, the absence of a quorum on the day that the bill is put to a vote would mean that it is being junked by the lawmakers.
The other day, some eight members of the minority bloc, withdrew their support from the RH bill. They have formally written the Speaker that they are withdrawing their co-authorship of the bill.
The CBCP said that 140 lawmakers are not supporting the RH bill.
Antipolo Bishop Gabriel Reyes said the latest poll conducted by the CBCP reaffirmed the sentiments of many lawmakers about the population control measure.
“We are happy about that. We just hope that they (anti-RH lawmakers) won’t change their stand,” said Reyes, chairman of the Episcopal Commission on Family and Life of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.
Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma, CBCP president, acknowledged that the survey’s result is a boost to the Church’s campaign to uphold the culture of life in the country.
He said that they expect more lawmakers to withdraw from the bill following the report that the House minority bloc already had withdrawn their support for the RH measure.
“We expect something like that with the passing of time. Initially, with the passing of time and with more and more sharing, discussions or forums, and with reports coming from many places in the world...but we have a broader perspective of what’s happening all over the world and therefore it also becomes a basis for their assessment and decision,” Palma said.
The survey was conducted by the bishops themselves in their respective dioceses before the Sona.
“Out of the 85 dioceses in the Philippines, 77 (bishops) answered. These bishops surveyed 215 congressmen and out of that number, 49 said they will vote yes to the RH bill, 140 will vote no, and 26 are undecided,” Palma said.
On Monday, House minority leader and Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez, revealed they were withdrawing their support for the RH bill.
According to him, some members of the minority bloc only supported the bill because they were influenced largely by Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, who then led the minority.
The decision of the lawmakers came days before the Church-led prayer rally against the RH bill at the Edsa Shrine in Quezon City on Aug. 4.


http://manilastandardtoday.com/www2/2012/08/02/congress-urged-to-pass-rh-bill-for-the-future/

Congress urged to pass RH bill for the future
By Joyce Pangco Pañares | Posted on August 02, 2012 | 12:09am | 6 Comments

Malacanang on Wednesday urged lawmakers to “vote for the future of our nation” and pass the reproductive health bill despite threats from the Catholic Church to withhold support from them in next year’s election if they did.
Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said if the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines claimed to have at least 140 votes to kill the bill in the House of Representatives, lawmakers should also be aware that a December 2010 Pulse Asia survey showed that at least 70 percent of Filipinos favored the passage of the reproductive health measure.
He also played down warnings that the lawmakers who would vote for the bill would lose the so-called Catholic vote in next year’s midterm elections.
“This should not be a vote as to whether I will be re-elected… It should be a vote on the future of our country and the future of the children that we bring into the world,” Lacierda said.
“What kind what kind of a decent life can you bring if you got too many children that you have brought into this world without the means to support them?
This is about that. This is about having productive citizens. This is not about voting and being re-elected in 2013. I hope the congressmen realize that this is a vote on the future of our nation.”
A consolidated version of the measure, now called the responsible parenthood, reproductive health and population and development bill, was submitted to Congress in August.
Lacierda said the government took into consideration the concerns raised by the bishops during their previous dialogs, including the removal of a provision to limit the number of children per family as well as increasing the age for children who will take sex education in schools.
Among the concessions extended to the CBCP is the amendment of a provision requiring all hospitals to carry a full-range of modern artificial family planning methods.
In a statement, the CBCP said it was able to survey 215 of the 285 district and party-list representatives before President Benigno Aquino III’s State of the Nation Address last week.
Only 49 supposedly said they would vote for the RH bill while 26 remained undecided, the CBCP said.
Each side will need 145 votes to win a majority on Aug. 7, when an end to the debates is to be called.
At least eight members of the House minority bloc have already withdrawn their support for the bill, which was authored by the former leader of the opposition, Rep. Edcel Lagman.
Minority Leader and Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez, who replaced Lagman, warned that the administration could easily railroad the passing of the bill without considering the opposition to it.
On Wednesday, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad reiterated the administration’s support for a national policy on reproductive health.
“The President has spoken,” Abad told lawmakers when he presented the Palace-backed P2.006-trillion national budget for 2013 to the House.
“He has been clear. We are his alter-ego so we stand behind the President in this issue.”
Also on Wednesday, Lagman said “Congress cannot be threatened to legislate the dogma of the dominant church.”
Reacting to the Church’s threats, he said doing so would violate the constitutional ban on the establishment of a state religion and the use of public funds for religious purposes.
“The bishops forget that the miracle of life should not result in the death of the mother, and the quality of life of children must be enhanced by empowering parents, couples and women to freely and responsibly determine the number and spacing of their children,” Lagman said.
He said the RH bill was intended to improve maternal health and reduce maternal and infant mortality by preventing high-risk, unwanted and teenage pregnancies through voluntary family planning, including non-abortive contraception by choice. With Maricel Cruz

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