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Date Posted: 20:40:06 07/18/12 Wed
Author: IMRD
Subject: July 19, 2012 news

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=829007&publicationSubCategoryId=63


Palace: RH bill in Congress not yet dead
By Delon Porcalla (The Philippine Star) Updated July 19, 2012 12:00 AM Comments (6)



MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang is not losing hope on the reproductive health bill – which President Aquino himself has endorsed – despite news reports that it is on the verge of being docketed yet again in the present Congress.
“The bill is not yet dead. It’s still with the House (of Representatives),” presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda yesterday said, apparently unaware that the measure is now locked in plenary debates.
House Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II hinted that the chances for the passage of House Bill 4244 is now very slim, considering that congressmen will be busy campaigning for the May 2013 polls apart from the debates on the 2013 budget.
Gonzales said the chances of the RH bill being approved in the House were becoming “smaller and more difficult” as it remained stuck in floor debates, citing opponents’ fierce opposition to the measure.
However, Lacierda said he will ask the President about his sentiments on the issue, including the criticisms of Aquino’s relative – Rep. Carmen Cojuangco – regarding the very slow pace by which the RH bill has been moving in the House.


http://manilastandardtoday.com/www2/2012/07/19/popcom-exec-pnoy-favors-natural-family-planning/

Popcom exec: PNoy favors natural family planning
By Florencio P. Narito | Posted on July 19, 2012 | 12:05am | 0 Comments

Guinobatan, Albay—President Aquino favors the natural family planning method and could not be expected to support a bill that seeks to allow the use of contraceptive pills as a means to curb runaway population growth, a Commission on Population official said on Wednesday.
Regional director Magdalena Abellera said the commission, which is tasked to promote family planning, had been advised to promote the natural method, or that relying on the calendar, to prevent pregnancy.
“Pnoy is okay with the natural family-planning method,” Abellera said, adding that even under the administration of Cory Aquino, Mr. Aquino’s mother, her agency had been ordered to go natural.
The reproductive health bill seeking to guarantee universal access to the methods of and information on birth control and maternal care remains pending in Congress because of the strong opposition from the Catholic Church and the politicians identified with it.
Despite the strong lobby from youth and women’s groups, the House of Representatives did not even include the bill in the list of priority bills of the 15th Congress.
Guinobatan municipal Councilor July Tingzon said the Catholic schools in Albay, including Aquinas University, the Divine Word College of Legazpi, and the St. Agnes Academy threatened to cross him out in the next elections unless he withdrew his support for the bill.
Tingzon said he ignored the threat because many Filipinos were supporting the bill since “it is pro-quality of life and not pro-abortion as alleged by Church leaders.”
“Many are against the RH bill but ask them if they have read the bill in its entirety… and they say they have not read the bill. Among the provisions of the bill are responsible parenthood and child and maternal health,” Tingzon said.
At the House, Majority Leader Rep. Neptali Gonsalez said the chances of the bill being discussed and debated in the 15th Congress looked dim because the assembly would go on a holiday break in October and then in December to make way for the 2013 elections.


http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/231193/lack-of-will-not-time-is-killing-rh-bill%E2%80%94lagman

Lack of will, not time, is killing RH bill—Lagman
By Gil C. Cabacungan
Philippine Daily Inquirer
2:41 am | Thursday, July 19th, 2012
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Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman. INQUIRER/JOAN BONDOC
It’s not lack of time but lack of political will that is blocking the passage of the much-needed reproductive health bill, Albay Representative Edcel Lagman said Wednesday.
Lagman, a principal author of the RH bill, said House leaders should be truthful and declare the real reason the House was giving up on the RH bill after endless debates on the floor for the last one and a half years.
“‘If there is a will, there is a way’ is a truism in lawmaking. The lack of time should not be made the scapegoat for lack of political will in failing to enact the long-pending reproductive health bill,” said Lagman.
He was reacting to a statement made by Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II, which mentioned looming budget deliberations and preparations for the 2013 elections as reasons why the RH bill would not likely be passed this year. Gonzales was earlier quoted as saying the bill had little or no chance of passing under the present Congress.
Palace clueless
Malacañang spokesperson Edwin Lacierda also claimed Wednesday he was not aware of what was going on with regard to the RH bill and would leave the fate of the bill to the House.
“It’s a priority bill that we submitted. Unfortunately, it is a very contentious topic. That’s why debates have been ongoing in the House,” Lacierda told reporters Wednesday.
Countered Lagman: “There is sufficient time from late July to the end of August to vote on the RH bill, before the General Appropriations Bill is set for plenary consideration in September. Time is not a problem for the House of Representatives. It has always found time to fast track the approval of measures which the leadership wants enacted in a couple of weeks.”
“If the Senate has the time to vote on its counterpart RH bill, why should the House find time elusive and running out on an allied measure which has been principally nurtured in the House?” he added.
Debated inside and out
Lagman cited the lightning-quick approval of the cancellation of elections in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and passage of the Government-Owned and Controlled Corporations (GOCCs) Governance Act last year. “Unlike the ARMM and GOCC bills, which had inordinately short legislative gestation, the current RH bill and its precursors have been debated inside and outside Congress for almost one and a half decades,” said Lagman.
He also cited recent statements by Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. claiming there was time to push for Charter change as long as this was done through a constituent assembly and the amendments limited to economic provisions.
“If there is time for Cha-Cha, which is unpopular, why should there be no time for RH when numerous and repeated surveys have documented that Filipinos want the RH bill enacted into law soonest,” said Lagman.
“The House leadership must take the bull by its horns and schedule the resumption of debates, amendments and voting within an expeditious time frame,” said Lagman.

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