Win some, lose some in Senate’s RH bill

Sen. Ralph Recto: “It is not about winning rounds. It is about creating good laws.” INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Win some, lose some. That was the outcome Monday during the period of amendments in the Senate for the reproductive health (RH) bill.

By a vote of 13-9, the chamber accepted the amendment proposed by Sen. Ralph Recto not to compel local government units (LGUs) to provide RH services.

The chamber (nine for and seven against) also accepted Recto’s proposal  to exempt private institutions from providing mandatory RH services.

But Recto lost his proposal (seven for and 10 against) to raise the age covered by adolescence: from 10-19 years old to 13- 20 years old.

“It is not about winning rounds. It is about creating good laws,” said Recto.

He said LGUs, especially cash-strapped towns, were already burdened with many responsibilities, to provide mandatory health services.

The amended provision reads, “The provision of reproductive healthcare and information must be the primary responsibility of the national government consistent with its obligation to respect, protect and promote the right to health.”

Before the amendment, it was the joint responsibility of the national and the local government to provide RH services.

“How much will this cost the LGU, with all these mandates? If we can’t answer the question of how much, it will be very hard to have a new mandate,” Recto said.

In response, Sen. Pia Cayetano, sponsor of the RH bill, said it was the primary responsibility of local governments to provide health services.

Coming to the defense of the measure, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago said: “You cannot send to jail any local official if he can’t carry out his mandate because the government is not giving him money. I think the fear is misplaced.”

Earlier, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile surprised his peers when he revived his move to introduce amendments to the RH bill (a week after asking for more time to review his proposed changes) as most of the senators had steeled themselves for debates on the proposal to hike taxes on cigarettes and alcoholic drinks.

Only three senators—Vicente Sotto III, Teofisto Guingona III and Franklin Drilon—voted to stick with the scheduled debates on the sin tax bill, paving the way for Enrile to introduce six of his  17 proposed amendments to the RH measure.

Drilon, acting chair of the Senate ways and means committee, was forced to defer his plan to approve the sin tax bill before the start of deliberations on the 2013 budget today. The higher taxes on cigarettes and alcoholic products would cover a chunk of next year’s expenses.

Enrile assured his peers that he was not out to delay the passage of the sin tax bill (he comes from the tobacco-producing province of Cagayan) but to prove that he did not want to be accused of delaying the RH bill.

“I would like to make it on record I have no intention to delay the discussions on the sin tax bill … I assure you that it will take me only 20 minutes to present my amendments,” he said.

Enrile

It took more than two hours for Enrile to present six of his  amendments of which only three were carried.

The Enrile amendments that were approved were the deletion of the International Conference on Population and Development as one of the international organizations that the government must comply with; adoption of a provision guaranteeing equal rights of children and the unborn; and defining abortifacients as “any drug or device that induces abortion or the destruction of a fetus inside the mother’s womb.”

Enrile lost a crucial amendment (nine for and 11 against) which sought to adopt the constitutional definition of conception.

Santiago

Santiago warned that “a sweeping statement” on when life began could affect women in difficult pregnancies.

She said that anti-RH lawmakers were gearing up to contest the measure in the Supreme Court with this amendment on life and conception.

The RH debate adjourned three hours after it started at 2 p.m., with the senators proceeding to hold a caucus for the resumption of the sin tax debate Monday night.