Winning the RH debate

Eight Cebuano congressmen have signified their opposition to House Bill 4244 also known as the Reproductive Health bill, and if this is any indication, the Catholic Church maybe slowly but surely winning the campaign against the controversial population measure.

Last week, Rep. Pablo Garcia of Cebu’s 2nd district talked about the results of a recent survey in the House showing 130 anti-RH lawmakers, as against 108 pushing for the bill.  It is said the outcome of the House vote will be decided by 47 lawmakers who are still supposedly studying the measure. Still, the numbers are surprising considering that pro-RH stalwarts are all over the media and seem to be winning on all platforms.

The House survey results must be a big disappointment for Albay congressman Edcel Lagman. No wonder he called on House colleagues to resolve the issue on the basis of Social Weather Station polls. The SWS surveys had consistently showed that 60 percent of Filipinos favor the RH bill.

Lagman had been in the driver’s seat of the campaign since the 13th and 14th Congress but despite his hard work, something always happened to block the House measure.

In the 14th Congress, members were about to tackle and vote but the botched NBN-ZTE deal distracted them. This was in 2007 when the bill was sailing smoothly and Congress had no qualms about approving measures in the dead of the night. However, somebody exposed the $329.5-million NBN-ZTE broadband deal and hinted that then Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos brokered the deal. As we know, then president Gloria Arroyo moved to cancel the contract after she and first gentleman Mike Arroyo got ensnared in the scandal.

The events in the latter half of 2007 made congressmen rearrange their priorities.  Certainly, between a measure dictated by foreign interests and the survival of the sitting president who can make or unmake their political plans, they knew which task was more urgent.

Some observers say that the House survey results could still change, that is, if President Benigno S. Aquino, who is supportive of the bill, will use his influence over Congress.  I could be wrong but I don’t think P-Noy would dangle the pork barrel over this issue. I am told that congressmen  drawn by the lobby are having second thoughts about voting for the bill’s approval because it would forever incur the enmity of the Church. Who wants to be attacked in the pulpit every Sunday?

Of course, this is exaggeration that pro-RH elements describe as the Church’s coercive powers. I never heard any priest name names in their homilies.

While Congressmen Tommy Osmeña has taken a stand in favor of the RH bill, he promised to abstain when it’s time to vote, in deference to his friendship with former Cebu City north district congressman Raul del Mar.

The clerics in Cebu did not answer back Tommy’s comments about Church dogma perhaps because they understand that at the end of the day, Tommy would still come out as anti-RH. Despite the lawmaker’s pro-RH avowals, his upcoming abstention would amount to contributing to the defeat of the bill in Congress. –Malou Guanzon-Apalisok, Cebu Daily News