Lagman and company have been watering down the language and removing some objectionable provisions of the RH Bill, hoping to gain the favor of more undecided Congressmen. Below are the intended amendments. My comments embedded in red.
Sec. 13, lines 9-14, p. 12 : the final line to read "help implement the Act" rather than "give priority to family planning work".
This watered down language does not remove the obligation to implement the Act. The Bill still obliges implementation.
NO DEAL!
NO DEAL!
Sec. 15 on Mobile Health Care Service, p. 12, lines 20-25 and page 13, lines 1-6 should be amended to read:
"Each Congressional District may be provided... appropriate to coastal or mountainous areas, THE PROCUREMENT AND OPERATION OF WHICH SHALL BE FUNDED BY THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT" rather than original "may be funded from the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) of each congressional district".
This watered down language does not remove the obligation to fund the Mobile Health Care Service. "Mobile Health Care" really means the mobile FPA clinics first popularized in the UK by the Marie Stopes Society. The revision aims to assure the Congressmen that the RH Law will not diminish their respective pork barrels.
NO DEAL!
NO DEAL!
Section 16. Mandatory Age-Appropriate Reproductive Health and Sexuality Education.
p. 13, lines 7-25 and p. 14, lines 1-13.
Amended to end with final paragraph to read: "PARENTS SHALL EXERCISE THE OPTION OF NOT ALLOWING THEIR MINOR CHILDREN TO ATTEND CLASSES PERTAINING TO REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH AND SEXUALITY EDUCATION".
This watered down language does not prohibit, but rather still mandates the DepEd to conduct immoral and deformative UNFPA-UNESCO sex education programs. Such programs are still unconstitutional. The program is optional only to "minor" children, when the children reach high school, the infernal program will still be mandatory. In any case, the DepEd/UNFPA sex education program is still ongoing nationwide.
NO DEAL!
NO DEAL!
Section 20. Ideal Family Size. Amended ... deleted in its entirety.
This watered down language does not mean that the government cannot set population targets or engage in cultural re-engineering activities to reduce family size. Such programs are in fact already being implemented by the DOH and other departments of Government.
NO DEAL!
NO DEAL!
Section 21. Employers' Responsibility. p. 15, lines 10-15 and p. 16, lines 1-4. Amended by completed being deleted as it is just a restatement and amplification of the existing Article 134 of the Labor Code.
The deletion of this provision means nothing in actuality and adds nothing to the acceptability of the RH Bill. If anything, it merely confirms how laws can coerce employers to apply inhumane and anti-life policies on their employees.
NO DEAL!
NO DEAL!
Section 28 (e) on Prohibited Acts , p. 21, lines 24-25 which reads "Any person who maliciously engages in disinformation about the intent and provisions of this Act" SHOULD BE DELETED IN ITS ENTIRETY "in order to afford widest latitude to freedom of expression within the limits of existing penal statutes."
The deletion of this provision does not diminish the imposition on moral consciences of the Filipino people. The very existence of an RH Law is an oppressive imposition on freedom of conscience. The activities the RH Bill contemplates will jeopardize the practice of civic and personal virtues among citizens. The RH Bill itself should be DELETED IN ITS ENTIRETY. The masterminds of the RH Bill have already found other ways to penalize objectors.
NO DEAL!
NO DEAL!
Lagman and the Philippine Left are mourning the diminishing size of their Reproductive Health paycheck, which they mean, no doubt, to spend on obtaining political supremacy.
STOP THE RH BILL!
Please take note that as of the moment these changes have not yet been introduced. They will be introduced at the appropriate moment according to Lagman's letter. Hence there is no amended version of the bill. Usually this is will be done after the interpellation and period of amendments is over.
