This is a re-posted article.
Manila, Philippines - The passage of the Reproductive Health (RH) bill in the House of Representatives before the end of the month looms after the chamber voted last night to finally terminate discussions on the controversial measure after 19 months of debate.
Hours earlier, President Aquino called for a majority caucus at Malacañang attended by 182 lawmakers to rally them to vote for the termination of the debates in the House, citing studies and even personal anecdotes on the urgent need for the enactment of House Bill 4244.
In making the motion to end debates on the measure, House Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II cited Section 54 of the House rules, which prescribes the termination of discussions when a certain number of speeches have been delivered for or against a measure.
He said seven lawmakers have delivered speeches in favor of HB 4244 while 16 anti-RH congressmen have already debated with their colleagues, with some interpellating for four straight session days.
“Who will we listen to? The clergy? Or the people who elected us? I say we listen to the people; 82 percent of them are for the RH bill,” Muntinlupa Rep. Rodolfo Biazon, one of the authors of the measure, told his colleagues just before the viva voce voting of 249 House members.
Navotas City Rep. Tobias Tiangco questioned the results of the viva voce voting and called for a nominal voting - where the ballot of each House member would be recorded - saying he was not convinced by the results of the voting presided over by Deputy Speaker Arnulfo Fuentebella.
Tiangco’s motion, however, was put on hold as the chamber’s leadership moved to defuse tension on the floor. After nearly an hour, the lawmaker withdrew his motion.
With the termination of debates, the bill - otherwise known as “An Act Providing For A Comprehensive Policy On Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health, And Population And Development” - will enter the period of amendments and be up for passage on second reading, the crucial approval of any measure.
Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, principal author of the measure, said the controversial bill will be approved on third and final reading before the end of the month when the House starts deliberating on the proposed P2-trillion national budget for 2013.
“We have a calibrated move for this,” Lagman told The STAR minutes before the voting.
Similar RH bills have been filed since the late 1980s in Congress but they have not been approved due to strong lobbying by the Catholic Church.
Prior to the “ayes and nays” voting, Reps. Rufus Rodriguez (Cagayan de Oro), Mitos Magsaysay (Zambales), and Hermilando Mandanas (Batangas) made impassioned pleas to their colleagues to continue discussions.
“This bill is against the Constitution,” Rodriguez said. “Article 15 states that Filipinos can raise their families according to their religious convictions. This particular bill coerces the Filipino family.”
Magsaysay said she was surprised the voting was scheduled a day before the announced date.
Former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo left the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) where she is confined to attend the voting.
Arroyo, escorted by her son Camarines Sur Rep. Diosdado Arroyo, wore a bright red dress with a neck and back brace.
World boxing idol and Sarangani Rep. Manny Pacquiao, whose attendance in sessions was spotty, also appeared in a bid to rally anti-RH lawmakers.
The majority caucus started at around 11:30 a.m. at the Kalayaan Hall in Malacañang and Aquino arrived at around 1 p.m. coming from a Cabinet meeting.
Ang Kasangga party-list Rep. Teodorico Haresco described the President’s talk with them as “diplomatic, empathic and principled.”
“He described how disproportionate the government resources are to the fast-growing population,” Haresco said.
Quezon City Rep. Winston Castelo said Aquino cited personal experiences that made him push for the RH bill, including his meeting with a widow left with six children after her soldier husband died in battle.
“He never pressured us. He said we should vote according to our conscience,” Castelo said.
Lagman said Aquino stressed to them that their vote entails “the courage to make a decision as leaders of their respective constituencies, not to be cowed by intimidation of reprisal at the polls.”
Earlier, Isabela Rep. Giorgiddi Aggabao, a senior lawmaker allied with the administration and a former prosecutor in former chief justice Renato Corona’s impeachment trial, said many committed not only for the termination of interpellation, but also for the approval of the RH bill.
At the very least, he said at least 200 House members pledged support for Aquino’s request to have the bill - which the Catholic Church is fiercely opposing - passed.
Growing support
In a statement over the weekend, the Human Development and Poverty Reduction (HDPR) Cabinet Cluster - which consists of 20 government agencies dealing with poverty and development - had endorsed strongly Aquino’s pro-RH position.
The cluster said it is “deeply concerned with the long-term implications the absence of such a bill would have on poverty and development in this country.”
“Already, our maternal mortality rate (MMR) has gone up to 221 per 100,000 live births, our worst MDG to date. We now have the worst poverty situation in the entire ASEAN 4 region and, with one of the highest birth rates in Southeast Asia, the dubious distinction of being the 12th most populous country in the world,” it stated.
The cluster emphasized the urgent need for responsible parenthood to counter the country’s soaring population growth and the disturbing social consequences that have resulted from it.
“If the RH bill is passed, it is the poor and the marginalized who would most benefit from greater access to healthcare services. Quite simply, the bill is rights-based, pro-health and pro-poor,” assistant secretary Lila Ramos-Shahani, head of communications of the Human Development and Poverty Reduction Cabinet Cluster under the Communications Group Office, said.
Five of the country’s largest business groups have also issued a unified statement calling on the Senate and the House of Representatives to “pass into law without further delay the Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health and Population and Development Act of 2011, as embodied in House Bill 4244 and Senate Bill 2865.”
In their statement, the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP), Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (FINEX), Makati Business Club (MBC), Management Association of the Philippines (MAP), and Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) also reiterated that they “strongly believe government must encourage responsible parenthood and promote family planning as a direct strategy for poverty reduction and maternal and child healthcare.”
The businessmen emphasized the primacy of giving parents the final say on matters of family planning and providing them with the means to realize what they believe is best for their families.
Meanwhile, the strong expression of support from the business community for the passage of an RH law was mirrored by the findings of a survey conducted by the MBC among its members.
The survey results revealed that as much as 80.2 percent of the respondents answered “yes” in support of the passage of HB 4244. Only 18.6 percent said “no,” and 1.2 percent gave no answer to the survey conducted from Aug. 1 to 3, 2012, via fax and online.
Social justice
Two former secretaries of the Department of Health (DOH) said the RH bill can address the deteriorating health of Filipinos.
According to Dr. Alberto Romualdez, legislators should look at the possible impacts of the RH bill on the country’s public health system which is now marked by many young and poor women who die of childbirth and pregnancy-related complications.
For her part, Dr. Esperanza Cabral said that poor families are on the disadvantaged side in a society that has no law on reproductive health because they get to have more children than they want.
“The passage of RH bill is a matter of social justice... If we want easier access to health care for everybody, there is no way we should not pass the RH bill,” she said.
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