House leaders ‘dribbling’ RH bill, lawmaker complains

Pangasinan Representative Kimi Cojuangco. Congress,gov photo

Tempers are fraying at the House of Representatives’ over the delay in the deliberations on controversial reproductive health (RH) bill, with two proponents of the measure exchanging caustic barbs.

It started when Pangasinan Rep. Kimi Cojuangco on Wednesday took to her Twitter account to complain about the lack of progress on the RH bill, which is supposed to be in the period of amendments.

She wondered aloud whether Majority Floor Leader Neptali Gonzales II had anything to do with the bill’s lack of progress in the House.

“No priest and nun observers in the plenary lately. Do they know something I don’t? Could it be because MFLs [Majority Floor Leader’s] district is home to the archbishop’s palace?” she tweeted.

She added that it was only Gonzales, the representative of Mandaluyong, “who knows what would happen to the bill.”

In an interview, she told reporters that she was appalled at the “dribbling” of the RH bill, and said its fate should be decided once and for all.

‘Not moving’

“It’s my wish that whether the RH bill passes or not, we should at least put it to a vote,” she said.

She also said that in the House, lawmakers were reduced to listening to privilege speeches, while the RH bill was not moving.

Gonzales could secure a quorum in the House if he wanted to, she said.

Gonzales, who has no Twitter account, replied to Cojuangco’s tweet in a text message to reporters.

“I don’t know what she had for breakfast today,” he said.

He added that none of the Catholic priests, monsignors, and bishops in Mandaluyong ever tried to influence him.

“It would be wise for her, for the sake of RH advocates, to keep her mouth shut,” he further said.

No quorum

In a later interview, he said the House has not yet taken up the bill on the floor because of problems with attendance. To be able to have progress in the bill, the House should not only have a quorum, but must also be able to sustain it during the proceedings.

He said it would be easy to defeat the bill by calling for the session’s adjournment due to a lack of quorum.

If it were only up to him and Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, the bill would have been voted on instantly. But there were 287 members of the House, he added.

Asked what the leadership has done to ensure a quorum, he said text messages have been sent to lawmakers, and they have also talked to them personally to convince them to attend sessions.

As for penalizing chronic absentees, he said it would be difficult to do that at this point. He noted that if ethics complaints were filed against the absentees, they could easily defeat the vote because there are more of them.