Pro-RH lawmakers attempt to railroad RH bill

A lawmaker opposed to the Reproductive Health (RH) bill yesterday accused advocates of trying to tamper with the number of the controversial measure to make it appear that it is was filed ahead of the Pro-Life bill — Protection of the Unborn.

According to Parañaque Rep. Roilo Golez the number of the RH bill was “96” and that someone was trying to change the number to “03” so that it would be ahead of the Pro-Life bill.

“There was in my belief an apparent attempt to tamper with the RH bill number from 96 to 03, so that it would be ahead of my prolife House Bill 13 or the Protection of the Unborn,” Golez said.

The attempt, however, failed after warning House officials that he will filed a case against those responsible for the anomaly before the Office of the Ombudsman.

“The attempt did not succeed when I warned the Office of the Secretary General and the Bills and Index office that I would file falsification case in the Ombudsman’s office,” he said.

Golez, in Wednesday’s plenary debates, reiterated that there is no need for the RH bill because its provisions are already contained in Republic Act 9710 of the Magna Carta for Women.

There’s no need for the Reproductive Health bill because most of the RH care features are contained almost verbatim in RA 9710 or Magna Carta for Women. So RHB is superfluous and unnecessary,” Golez said in his interpellation of the bill’s sponsors headed by House Minority Leader Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman.

Golez also took a swipe at Lagman during Wednesday’s debates even as he compared Lagman to Sugar Shane Mosley who took a beating and ran away from Manny Pacquiao.

“Last night Rep. Lagman was not ready to rumble. He ran away like Mosley. I think he anticipated the unstoppable left hook questions on why HB 3, the wrong ‘amended’ statement and RA 9710,” Golez said, referring to the attempt to change the bill’s number; Lagman’s statement that the bill has already been amended and the Magna Carta for Women.

Pacquiao, earlier had debated Lagman on the RH bill.

Zambales Rep. Milagros Magsaysaya, in her post on the social networking site Facebook, quoted the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) as saying that drive against a proposed measure on contraceptives is not just a Catholic issue.

Monsignor Juanito Figura, CBCP secretary general, said it is a fight of many Filipinos who treasure authentic values regarding human life.

According to him, there are many people at the sidelines of the campaign against the bill. It just so happened, he said, that Church statements are the ones being given so much attention.

“The CBCP is only one of those who stand against the bill and we will continue proclaiming as much as we can the Gospel of Life,” Figura said.

Supporters of the bill have been criticizing the CBCP for intervening on state affairs and for meandering on matters of religion.

RH bill principal author Lagman, for instance, said that the measure “is not about religion” but “about rights.”

But Figura said the CBCP is speaking on “religious point of view” as a basic right stated in the preamble of the Constitution, which is making a reference to God.

“It may be the God of us Christians, maybe the Allah of our Muslim brothers and sisters, the Buddha of the Buddhist, or anybody transcendental to other religions,” he pointed out.

“But the Almighty had to be there and his teaching had to be listened to and followed. This is the first basis in the Church’s involvement (in the fight against RH bill),” Figura said.  –Gerry Baldo, Daily Tribune