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Date Posted: 18:58:16 07/23/12 Mon
Author: IMRD
Subject: July 24, 2012 news

http://www.tribune.net.ph/index.php/headlines/item/1960-cayetano-pushes-senate-to-vote-on-rh-bill


Cayetano pushes Senate to vote on RH bill

* Written by Angie M. Rosales
* Tuesday, 24 July 2012 00:00
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The lead sponsor in the Senate of the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) bill is out to steer the upper chamber into putting to a vote the measure, regardless of whether there’s enough numbers to seal its approval.
Apparently frustrated with the tedious debates and reticence of most of her colleagues on the bill, Sen. Pia Cayetano yesterday said she’s willing to challenge every single member of the Senate to vote for the measure, adding it will be an embarrassment to the Filipino people to say they’re not ready to decide on its fate, after a year of deliberations on the floor.
“All it requires is for me to take the floor and move to close (the debates) and put this to a vote. We’ve done our part. We’ve presented the whole case, I will just have to present my committee amendments and after that, we vote. What is so difficult about that? We vote.”
The chairman of the Senate committee on health and demography reacted strongly to the statements given by Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile during an interview after the morning plenary session, on the bill going through a rough sailing this year and with no clear assurance that they have have it approved eventually.
This, despite Enrile mentioning in his speech a continuing discussion on what he described as one of the “rare measures in the Senate that has been a magnet of philosophical musings and emotional sentiments from various sectors.”
“We might have difficulty (in having it approved this year). There are still a number (of senators) out to interpellate about the bill in the plenary,” Enrile was quoted as saying.
Asked by reporters on the possibility of the bill seeing its passage this year, Enrile gave this reply: “I don’t know. It depends. We will leave it to the Senate.”
Cayetano lamented the fact that since last year, she has been debating the floor every session day the bill and has been ready to entertain questions from her colleagues.
“So, the same way, when we resume the sessions, I’m ready (to debate) and I think all of our colleagues should be ready also to put it to a vote. Before they put a vote they can make their individual amendments and then make a vote. How difficult is that? It’s an embarrassment to the Filipino people to say that ‘we are not ready,” she said.
“So, the question is, let us now challenge every single member of this Senate to be ready to vote for this measure. And like I said, before that happens, I will present the committee amendments and everyone is free to propose individual amendments,” Cayetano said.
Sen. Francis ‘Chiz’ Escudero supported the stand of Cayetano that the Senate should vote on RH bill.
“Perhaps it is the proper time to decide on it, again one way or the other, so that it will not be in the Senate forever,” Escudero said.
The senator said she does not have any idea whether Malacañang is backing up the passage of the bill.
“I haven’t talked to the President. So, I don’t want to put words in his mouth and I’d like to believe that the President is supportive of RH bill,” she said.
But President Aquino asked Congress to pass the controversial reproductive health in his third State of the Nation Address.
Aquino said responsible parenthood is one of the ways to address classroom and textbook backlogs in public schools.



http://manilastandardtoday.com/www2/2012/07/24/15th-congress-to-tackle-rh-bill-cha-cha/



15th Congress to tackle RH bill, Cha-cha
By Macon Ramos-Araneta | Posted on July 24, 2012 | 12:12am | 2 Comments

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Speaker Feliciano Belmonte on Monday vowed to tackle Charter change and the reproductive health bill as the 15th Congress opened its third regular session.

Both issues “demand an answer from this chamber,” Enrile said.

“I know that we in the Senate will tackle these issues with tact and bravery.”

Despite the proposals to make it possible for foreign investors to own utilities and land, Enrile said, the policy favoring Filipino ownership in the Constitution would not change.

“What we envision is simply to relieve our people of the rigidity of their Constitution by making it more flexible,” he said.

To do that, he said, the Senate was proposing to grant Congress the power to look at the ratio of Filipino participation as against foreign participation when the need arose to come up with a formula.

Earlier, Senator Panfilo Lacson said the opposition from Enrile and Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III was hampering the passage of the reproductive health bill.

But Senator Pia Cayetano, a proponent of the bill, said she was hopeful it would be passed after the Senate resumed its sessions.

In his speech Monday, Enrile also said he expected the deliberations on the 2013 national budget would be handled “in an expeditious manner,” with the proposed expenditures thoroughly studied. Improving the economy was a vital government concern.

“But our way of allowing business to prosper must be guided not only by a sense of free enterprise but also by the spirit of stewardship,” Enrile said, adding the Senate would give priority to a bill that will discourage anti-competitive conduct including price-fixing and mergers.

Senators Miriam Defensor Santiago, who was sick, and Francis Pangilinan, who was in Switzerland, were not present at the resumption of the sessions.

In the House, Belmonte reiterated his determination to push through with the amendments to the economic provisions of the Constitution.

“It is high time that we revisit the economic provisions of the Constitution which, to my mind, restrict our economic progress and growth,” Belmonte said.

He said the House leadership will give priority to two contentious measures: the reproductive health bill and the freedom of information bill.

“The reproductive health bill is already pending in plenary debate,” Belmonte said.

“It has been discussed from every possible perspective by advocates and opponents alike not only in past Congresses. I think it is time we finally put it to a vote. Let the chips fall where they may.”

Belmonte said amending the Constitution’s economic provisions would not be easy and could not be done overnight, but Congress must take the first step toward relaxing the Charter’s restrictive provisions.

“Those who advocate the maintenance of restrictions will have all the time and opportunity to convince Congress otherwise,” Belmonte said.

“The prohibitions on foreigners on land ownership and on the exploitation of natural resources, and the nationality requirements on the ownership and operation of public utilities, mass media and educational institutions have their origins in the 1935 Constitution, and were borrowed from socialist-oriented constitutions at that time.

“But consider the following: What were China and Russia in 1935, and what are they today? Countries are like living creatures. They have to adapt to the changing conditions to survive and develop.” With Maricel Cruz

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