Pangasinan Representative Kimi Cojuangco. Photo from https://twitter.com/kimicojuangco
MANILA, Philippines — Pangasinan Representative Kimi Cojuangco went to Twitter and accused Majority leader Neptali Gonzales II at the House of Representatives of saying that there was no chance that the Reproductive Health Bill would be passed in the 15th Congress.
In a “public confession”, Cojuangco quoted Gonzales as saying, “Wala na yan; forget the RH Bill. If ever, baka sa 16th Congress na lang. We can just repackage it”.
She said that she asked the majority floor leader, in a meeting, to tell her the truth on the fate of House Bill 4244 otherwise known as the RH Bill.
“I started by saying I am tired of fighting to death. I go to every single interview and do what I can to get this bill passed. So I pleaded with him to please tell me the truth,” twitted the legislator.
Cojuangco said she was “flabbergasted” at Gonzales’ reply, adding that she then felt that the House leader had just been leading along Albay Representative Edcel Lagman, the main proponent of the RH Bill.
“Why are you leading Manong Edcel along? Why are you saying something different in front of Speaker Belmonte?”
She said that she kept it to herself for some time but decided to make it public after Wednesday’s heated exchange with Gonzales.
The majority floor leader told reporters he had no idea what Cojuangco had for breakfast when she went on her tirade about the House leadership deliberately delaying the RH Bill.
He advised the legislator to “keep her mouth shut”, apparently irked by Cojuangco who said that she “couldn’t handle this blatant politicking anymore. No way will I keep quiet.”
“We are all being brought for a ‘ride’ by such trapo style politics. So there, the truth is out,” she said.
“If this means that I should not be a member of the HOR (House of Representatives), ok lang sa akin,” she added.
Gonzales told reporters in a chance interview Wednesday that he preferred issues like this to be straightened out within the plenary and not on social networking websites like Twitter.
This time, though, he refused to comment on Cojuangco’s recent tweets.