Reproductive health bill now a priority

PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino III said Tuesday he has included the consolidated reproductive health bill in his administration’s 13 priority legislative measures that will be sent to Congress.

He said the Executive branch had pushed for 10 amendments to the bill, which would now be called the Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health and Population and Development bill.

He said the Palace had asked Congress to amend a provision requiring all hospitals to carry a full-range of modern artificial family planning methods.

In an interview after the second Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council meeting Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Aquino said “conscientious objectors” should be exempted from the provision.

“That provision will be modified. It [the Palace proposal] recognizes that Church-based hospitals can practice their faith in recognition of freedom of religion enshrined in the Constitution.”

The President said the Executive also demanded financing for natural family-planning methods, which was not clearly defined in the consolidated RH bill, and for age-appropriate sex education to start from Grade 5.

He said the Executive also wanted a provision setting the ideal family size at two children removed, but lawmakers informed him that provision had already been deleted.

The Catholic Church on Tuesday said it would keep its strong opposition to the RH bill even if Malacañang had given it priority.

“Ignoring moral values is moral corruption, and moral corruption breeds corruption in public and private life,” said Tandag Bishop Nereo Odchimar, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.

Mr. Aquino said the government stood to earn an extra P60 billion annually in revenue from a measure seeking to index the so-called sin taxes on tobacco and alcohol products to inflation.

Part of the revenue generated through this measure would be used to promote universal health care, Mr. Aquino said.

The administration also pushed for a stronger anti-terrorism law with the proposed lifting of the P500,000-a-day indemnification for the wrongful arrest of suspected terrorists.

“Under the law, someone who was arrested and charged using the [Human Security Act of 2007] and was eventually freed can demand payment of P500,000 per day that he was detained,” Mr. Aquino said.

“This has made our troops apprehensive to make arrests using the anti-terrorism law.”

Mr. Aquino said the Palace wanted a 500,000-peso indemnification for the entire period of detention and not per day of detention.

Mr. Aquino also was optimistic the freedom of information bill would be passed during his term, even as he assured his critics that his administration was already granting the public access to state information and documents without that bill being passed first.

The bill seeks to give substance to a constitutional provision that guarantees the people’s access to information and documents in the custody of government officials and agencies.

In the House, the chairman of the committee on public information said the bill would likely face rough sailing without the Palace’s imprimatur.

Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone said the bill’s exclusion from the list of priority measures was not surprising because the Palace had already asked for more time to study it. –Joyce Pangco Pañares with Maricel Cruz and Vito Barcelo, Manila Standard Today