Enrile joins Sotto in fight vs RH bill

Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile has thrown his support behind his top lieutenant on the upper chamber’s floor, confronting proponents of the RH measure over a key statistical data claiming that 11 mothers die every day in the Philippines.

The figure has proven to be contentious at the start of debates in the Senate, as proponents were using it to help justify the legislation of a nationwide RH framework.

“Where are your statistics? Prove them!” Enrile told reporters, when told that the proadministration Akbayan group had demanded that Sotto apologize for questioning the supposed finding.

With a touch of sarcasm, Enrile added: “We are ignorant about these things. We want to learn from them. Sila, marurunong. Kami, mga mangmang. [They are well-informed. We are ignorant.]”

Enrile said senators could not just accept numbers being rattled off by those pushing the RH bill without any solid basis.

“Why should I accept their numbers? I can also manufacture a number. Will they accept it?” he asked.

Without necessarily rejecting the RH bill cosponsored by Senators Miriam Defensor-Santiago and Pia Cayetano, Enrile declared that he was “prolife.” He earlier authored a version of the Protection of the Unborn Child bill.

“From the very beginning, it has always been my position that I am prolife,” he said. “I believe in my faith. Only God can create life. Only God can take life. No one else.”

At the start of the debates on Monday, Sotto questioned the accuracy of the data cited by RH advocates that 11 mothers die in the country every day.

Akbayan spokesperson Risa Hontiveros, who ran and lost in the 2010 senatorial election, and fellow RH advocates have been citing this figure in an effort to convince legislators to vote for the bill.

In response, Santiago said the “empirical basis of 11-12 deaths per day” came from an estimate made by the World Health Organization, United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, UN Family Planning Association and World Bank six years ago.

Santiago said the figure was also based on a National Statistics Office survey in 2008.

Sotto then told her: “Were you aware that the survey was conducted by the (US Agency for International Development)?  The information by NSO was not the actual findings but (was done) with an independent group? Did you know that USAID workers (collaborate) with contraceptive manufacturers?”