New RH bill not a watered-down version – Lagman

MANILA, Philippines – The compromise reproductive health (RH) bill that the House leadership presented last Wednesday “is not a watered-down version,” Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, a principal author of the measure, said yesterday.

“It’s not a watered-down version. The essence of the original bill is still there, we kept it intact. We have not surrendered it. The compromise bill was just made more acceptable to those opposed to the original,” he said.

With the concerns of the bill’s critics having been addressed, Lagman said the measure “now enjoys wider support” among House members.

“We hope to approve the new version before the Christmas break in December. Its approval would be the greatest Christmas gift we can give to our people,” he said.

He pointed out that the compromise measure “still promotes the use of contraceptives, except those that will prevent the implantation of the fertilized ovum.”

It would also promote “natural methods of family planning,” he added.

Some congressmen opposed to the original bill, including Minority Leader Danilo Suarez and Rep. Florencio Noel of the party-list group An Waray, have promised to study the new version during the current three-week Halloween break of Congress.

However, one critic, Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro City, remains convinced of the measure’s “unconstitutionality.”

Rodriguez also questioned the procedure used by Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II, who ordered the distribution of copies of the compromise bill last Wednesday before the congressional recess.

“Let us study it because we will take it up after we reconvene on Nov. 5,” Gonzales told his colleagues.

Rodriguez said the new version is an amendment to the original and should be returned to the concerned committees.

“These committees will have to approve the amendments, which cannot be presented directly to the floor,” he said.

Both Gonzales and Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. are supporting the RH bill. Belmonte has described the compromise version as a “definite step forward” as it “addresses a lot of objections to the original bill.”

He said one of the changes introduced in the new bill is a provision ensuring that the process of fertilization and conception would not be impeded or aborted.

“Once fertilization occurred, nothing should obstruct the progress of the fertilized egg from then on,” he said.

He said he hoped his chamber could vote on the new measure on second and third and final reading before Congress goes on its Christmas break in mid-December.

“I am hopeful there would be less contentious issues when we take this up again,” he added. –Jess Diaz (The Philippine Star)