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Date Posted: 00:01:59 07/30/12 Mon
Author: IMRD
Subject: July 30, 2012 news

http://manilastandardtoday.com/www2/2012/07/30/house-sees-rh-bill-okay-senate-vows-to-block-it/

House sees RH bill okay; Senate vows to block it
By Christine F. Herrera | Posted on July 30, 2012 | 12:12am | 3 Comments

The principal author of the reproductive health bill on Sunday said an endorsement from President Benigno Aquino III has pushed the number of its supporters to 140, more than enough to approve the contentious measure by Aug. 7, when the debates were expected to close.
Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said the bill needed to be passed by August because Congress would be preoccupied with the deliberations on next year’s national budget by September and the filing of the candidacies for the mid-term 2013 elections by October.
Although the President only mentioned the term “responsible parenthood” once during his State-of-the-Nation Address last week in reference to his administration’s plans for education, Lagman took that as an endorsement of his bill.
“The message of the President was loud and clear. It’s not in the length of what he said but the content of what he said,” Lagman said.
“We have been saying that we have the numbers, and most especially now that President Aquino endorsed it.”
Lagman said he was optimistic that the debates, which have delayed a long-awaited vote on the bill, would likely be terminated soon.
While 104 lawmakers were signatories to the bill, Lagman said, their supporters had grown to 140. The other lawmakers did not want their identities known to prevent the Catholic bishops, who vehemently oppose the bill, from pressuring them, Lagman said.
“The House has extensively and adequately discussed and debated the RH bill since the interpellations started on May 17, 2011. We have been debating it for more than a year now,” said Pangasinan Rep. Kimi Cojuangco, one of the authors of the bill.
“It is time we terminate the debate and proceed to amendments and approval.”
House Deputy Majority Leader and Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin said Congress had been debating various versions of the bill for the last 11 years.
“Fifteen mothers are dying daily from pregnancy-related complications, and millions of Filipinos wanting better quality of life should be listened to,” Garin said.
“We owe it to our people to vote on this so that government resources and time can be used wisely and appropriately.”
If the plenary voted to end the debates, Lagman said, it could proceed to the period of amendments and subject the bill to a second and then third and final reading, Lagman said.
Lagman denied a Catholic Church claim that the bill’s P3-billion funding would all go toward buying contraceptives.
“The bulk of the funding would go to a massive information campaign to be spearheaded by the local government units to inform the couples about the natural and modern methods and how to plan their families through birth spacing,” Lagman said.
“We respect religious beliefs so we included the natural method. But it should be legal and not abortive, medically safe and truly effective.”
Lagman said neither the Church nor the State had the right to impose on couples which family planning method to use.
He said the bill was not a magic bullet that would immediately slow the country’s rapid population growth, but it would eventually have an impact on education, food, jobs, housing and the environment.
But Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile on Sunday said those saying the RH bill was not about population control were “liars’ and predicted it will have a tough time in the Senate.
“This is indeed a population control in the guise of a health bill. No question about it,” Enrile told dzBB radio.
But Senator Pia Cayetano, the principal author of the Senate version of the bill, said she remained confident that she could convince her colleagues to pass the measure.
The supporters of the bill have criticized the delays introduced by those who oppose to it, saying that with more than a year in plenary debates behind them, the time was ripe for a vote.
Senate Majority Floor Leader Vicente Sotto III, who opposes the bill, assured Cayetano that the bill would be put into vote in the last week of August or the first week of September. With Macon R. Araneta


http://www.malaya.com.ph/index.php/news/nation/9546-top-advocate-of-rh-in-house-sees-110-votes-and-counting

Top advocate of RH in House sees 110 votes and counting
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Published on Monday, 30 July 2012 01:10
Written by WENDELL VIGILIA
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THE leading advocate of the controversial health bill at the House of Representatives is banking on the support of at least 110 congressmen.
Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, principal author of House Bill 4244 or the Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health and Population and Development Act of 2011, said the 110 are co-authors of the measure.
“Marami sa supporters ng bill ang ayaw lang ipakita na pumirma sila pero nagsabi na kapag botohan na, they will vote for the bill. Baka aabot ng 140 members ang pabor dito. More than sufficient ‘yan,” he said over radio dzBB.
Lagman urged lawmakers not to be cowed by threats from some Catholic Church leaders who called for a boycott of supporters of the measure in the elections in May next year.
“They (Church officials) have done that, and they are still doing, kahit sa distrito ko. Pero tuwing eleksiyon, nananalo ako. Sa tingin ko walang epekto iyan. Sa survey noong 2007 at 2010, majority ang gustong magkaroon ng batas sa reproductive health at gumamit ng pondo ang gobyerno para dito,” he said.
The House leadership has set plenary voting on the measure on August 7 and vowed to resume the debates today in response to President Aquino’s call for the passage of the measure, when he delivered his third State of the Nation Address last week.
“We are confident about the quorum and we are calling on the members to perform our legislative duties and finally set the vote on terminating the debates for the reproductive health measure,” said majority leader Neptali Gonzales II.
Lagman said voting based on party stand is important for the passage of the measure, but conscience vote should still prevail.
“The bill is about freedom of choice. Maganda kung may party stand. Pero mas maganda kung conscience vote ito idadaan. Lalong panalo kami,” he said.
Lagman admitted his measure, even if enacted, would not immediately reduce population growth.
“This is not a magic bill na agad-agad bababa ang population growth. Uunahin talaga ang massive information campaign to empower the parents lalo na ang kababaihan to exercise their right to freely determine the spacing of their children,” he said.
He said it may take two to five years for the people to experience the favorable result of the measure especially in the areas of education, food, employment, housing and environment.
The RH bill has been pending at the House plenary since March after it was adopted by the committee on population and family relations after three hearings which ended last January.
The measure was first filed in the 8th Congress (1987-1992), during the time of President Corazon Aquino, and has been consistently re-filed in subsequent congresses.
The United Nations estimated the global population at seven billion, with the Philippines as the 12th most populous country in the world.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/239005/rh-debate-far-from-over-enrile

RH debate far from over—Enrile
Philippine Daily Inquirer
4:19 am | Monday, July 30th, 2012
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Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile. SENATE POOL
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile on Monday told proponents of the reproductive health (RH) bill the debate on the contentious measure was not over as a lot of questions still needed to be answered.
“I don’t know why some insist the time is ripe to approve the RH bill. This is not a banana or mango or durian. It involves a lot of things,” he said.
Enrile said he was for reopening the period of interpellation for the controversial bill, which had ended even before the senators turned their attention to the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona earlier this year.
The Senate President expressed anxiety over how the RH bill was being marketed as “prohealth” and “prowomen,” arguing that birth control has caused “social problems” in First World countries.
Enrile said he would not interpret the President’s call for responsible parenthood during his State of the Nation Address as a direct expression of support for the RH bill.
Responsible parenthood, he said, does not involve the government in the purchase and distribution of contraceptives and other forms of artificial birth control as provided for in the RH bill.
Enrile noted that no one had contradicted the President’s support for responsible parenthood. Cathy Yamsuan

http://www.manilatimes.net/index.php/news/nation/27947-enrile-seeks-to-reopen-rh-bill-interpellation?tmpl=component&layout=default&page=


THE Senate has no intention to speed up the passage of the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) Bill even after President Benigno Aquino 3rd mentioned it during his latest state of the nation address (SONA).

In fact, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile maintained that there are still a lot of issues that need to be raised in the proposed bill, noting that its proponents in the Senate cannot just subject the bill to a vote.

In a radio interview Enrile said that there is still the period of amendments and even the turno en contra, which will give the opponents of the bill the chance to pose their arguments against the measure.

He said the process is still long, adding that he may even ask for the reopening of the period of interpellation because there are still some members of the chamber who want to ask questions.

The Senate, before it went to sine die adjournment last month, has ended interpellations on the RH bills after nearly a year of debates.

But Enrile said he might ask for the reopening of the period of interpellation, adding that he only agreed to close it last month because he was exhausted with the four-month impeachment proceedings of former Supreme court chief Justice Renato Corona.

He added that Sen. Pia Cayetano, one of the sponsors of the bill, asked him to close the period of interpellation, subject to the option of reopening it on a later date.

Enrile’s plan to reopen the period of interpellation might cause disappointment to the sponsors and supporters of the bill in the chamber considering that they are already expecting to begin with the period of amendments.

Cayetano in an earlier interview said proponents of the bill have already explained every provision of the proposed measure and that the committee on health and demography would just present amendments to the proposal.

After the period of amendments, Cayetano said, she will then push the bill to a vote.

But the RH bill may still experience rough sailing this year because anti-RH bill lawmakers have remained strong in their opposition to the measure.

“I’m against the sale or distribution by the state of contraceptives,” Enrile said referring to one of the features of the proposed bill.

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