RH bill faces uphill climb at Lower House
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/11/24/10/rh-bill-faces-uphill-climb-lower-house
By RG Cruz, ABS-CBN News
Posted at 11/24/2010 3:52 PM | Updated as of 11/24/2010 3:52 PM
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MANILA, Philippines - The controversial Reproductive Health Bill faces an uphill climb in the House of Representatives after a lawmaker said he will not expedite deliberations on the reproductive health legislation.
Biliran Rep. Rogelio Espina, chair of the House committee on population and family relations, said he has not received instructions from Speaker Feliciano Belmonte to expedite deliberations on the RH bill despite the latter's statement that bills on 2nd reading in the 14th Congress should be fast-tracked.
“Wala pong ganung directive to me. Wala pang instruction sa akin, I don’t know with sponsors, but as chairman of the committee, wala. Hindi po natin magagawa yun. Gusto po natin malaman lahat ng sides and mahirap naman na iharap yan sa ating mga kababayan na hindi talaga napag-usapan kung ano talaga ang nilalaman ng bills na ito," he told reporters.
Espina said the committee will consult all stakeholders before they consolidate 6 different reproductive health bills pending in the Lower House. This is despite the repetitive nature of the debates, rehashing issues already discussed in the last Congress.
”Actually may ibang positions na bago. Although it was discussed regarding population management bills, reproductive health bills, two decades ago na nag-start yun, 8th congress pa pero on this 15th congress may changes sa data and presentations of various stakeholders”
Espina says they cannot commit to submit a consolidated bill to plenary anytime soon.
The House committee on population and family relations spent 4 hours on Wednesday hearing speeches from various reproductive health stakeholders ranging from religious groups, women’s groups, medical groups and even government offices like the justice and social welfare departments.
One religious group, Apostles of Mary, brought out a small statuette of St Joseph to implore the power of the saint to block the passage of the RH bill.
The Committee spent almost its whole 1st hour discussing whether or not the committee has jurisdiction over the bill. Anti-RH lawmakers such as Deputy Speaker Pablo Garcia and Paranaque Rep. Roilo Golez both argued the more appropriate committee would be the Committee on Health because it is about reproductive health and the lead implementing agency would be the health department.
'Bad feng shui'
Garcia said the RH bills must have had bad feng shui in the health committee, which is why it was taken away from the committee on health. He said the population committee may want to consider tackling this jointly with the health committee.
"Now I’m going to say this transfer of referral was premeditated to change real intention…Perhaps it was thought this is more defensible less difficult to defend if it is a population measure…But it is not defensible as a health issue because the World Health Organization issued an advisory that contraceptives are carcinogenic materials and substances," he said.
Golez said the population committee could be mismatched when faced by the resource persons.
Minority Leader and RH bill author Edcel Lagman rebutted them, saying the bill would be more germane to the population committee since it is more about population control and family planning.
"This bill is basically a population bill and a family planning measure..Whereas jurisdiction of the committee on health is very generic. It says all matter relating to public health," he said.
RP 12th most populous country
Lagman asserted the need for the RH law since the Philippines is now the 12th most populous country in the world. He said 54% of women don’t want additional child, 49% of women don’t use family planning and 22% of women have unmet need for family planning services.
Lagman said at the heart of the bill is freedom of informed choice as neither Church nor state has any place to tell people what to do on reproductive health.
He said that unless the committee chairman asks the rules committee to reconsider the referral to his committee, the RH bills stays in this committee.
For his part, Espina said there were no objections when the bill was referred to his committee by the plenary. He then ruled to just let the Rules Committee decide upon the jurisdiction upon the motion of the protesting lawmakers. However, Espina continued the debates.
Garcia said it was not correct to say the change of referral cannot be initiated by the house in plenary. "A motion can be filed, I will concede it will also be referred to committee on population but it must be jointly referred," he said.
Espina and Golez figured in a light moment when the former looked for a spokesperson for the pope and Golez responded by saying religious leaders should not be mocked.
Elizabeth Angsioco, national chairwoman of the Democratic Socialist Women of the Philippines, said the debate on jurisdiction was a dilatory tactic.
She said the RH bill would be doomed if it is referred to the health committee since many of its members are against the measure.
