Revised RH bill won’t go back to committee, says House leader

Majority leader Neptali Gonzales II and Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — The substitute bill on Reproductive Health will not go back to committee level deliberations, a leader at the House of Representatives has said.

Majority leader Neptali Gonzales II told reporters in an interview Monday that the leadership of the lower chamber of the 15th Congress was bent on allowing the period of amendments to be opened for the new version of House Bill 4244.

He said sending the new version back to the committee level would defeat the purpose of the bill’s period for individual amendments.

Cagayan de Oro Representative Rufus Rodriguez, a staunch critic of the RH Bill, has insisted that the substitute bill be sent back to the committee level. Talks on the issue has further delayed developments on HB 4244.

Another issue that has added up to the slow pace of the RH Bill was the lack of quorum at the plenary.

Gonzales said that the pro-RH Bill lawmakers needed to rustle up enough numbers (at least 141 of them) during plenary deliberations on the proposed measure if they wanted discussions on HB 4244 to resume.

But more than getting enough pro-RH solons to show up during roll call, Gonzales said that what was even more important at this point was for them to maintain quorum during the deliberations.

Gonzales said that Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. may also call for a caucus soon to iron out issues on the new version of the RH Bill.