Senators delaying RH bill, says Pia Cayetano
Sponsors of the reproductive health (RH) bill in the Senate on Monday suggested that the chamber’s leadership was employing delaying tactics to prevent the approval of the controversial measure.
“No one would admit they are delaying but since there are no more senators queuing to ask questions about the issue, there is no more reason why we cannot move to close the (debate) and move to the period of amendments,” Senator Pia Cayetano, principal sponsor of the measure and chair of the committee on women, youth and family relations, said in an interview.
Chemical makeup
Cosponsor Senator Miriam Santiago noted in a separate interview that the senators had gone to the extent of discussing the chemical composition of a contraceptive pill to drag out the debate.
“What is the correlation of this tablet to the merits of the RH bill? We should now move on to the period of amendments. However, we shall still be willing to answer (questions) in case there are still any left,” Santiago said.
Cayetano identified Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III as “those who have repeated questions” about the RH bill.
“We have been debating this measure since July. It’s been four months. That’s enough time for intelligent people to study the bill,” she said.
Agenda setters
Cayetano pointed out the Senate President and the Majority Leader were the ones who decided which measures were to be included in the chamber’s agenda for their session.
Before the Senate adjourned for a two-week holiday at the end of October, its members agreed to reschedule the discussions on the RH bill to January and concentrate instead on the 2012 national budget when the session resumed on November 14.
Cayetano and Santiago said they planned to file a motion seeking to end the period of interpellation or debate and begin the period of amendments this week as there were no more urgent bills to be discussed.
“I will take to task those who don’t want to take it up,” Cayetano said. “Why, are we already Christmassing? The RH bill is not on the agenda, yet after one hour of a session these days, we already go home. Nobody can claim we have no time for this measure.”
