Palace suggestion on RH irks lawmakers

Senator Joker Arroyo. INQUIRER file photo

Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda’s suggestion that Congress wrap up debates on the reproductive health (RH) bill and put the measure to a vote has rubbed certain senators and a senior Church official the wrong way.

Senator Joker Arroyo said Malacañang had “no business telling the Senate how much time it should spend on deliberations on a bill.”

“It was a stupid proposition… Why is he in a hurry? Are we in a rat race here?” he said.

“It seems like he (Lacierda) simply had nothing else to do because his boss was abroad… Nobody was asking him about the pace of the debates, but all of a sudden he came out and told us we should stop the debates,” Arroyo said.

Arroyo noted that Senate rules do not allow “cloture,” a move which cuts short a parliamentary procedure to pave the way for a vote on a given matter.

Fr. Melvin Castro, executive secretary of the CBCP-Commission on Family and Life, questioned the timing of Lacierda’s statement which was made just before President Benigno Aquino III’s trip to the United States, whose government is perceived to be supportive of the RH bill.

“Is there a commitment to the US or to the Filipino people? Why are they so aggressive to pass this bill?” he said.

The prelate advised lawmakers to ask themselves in whose interest and for what goal they are seeking the passage of the measure.

He cautioned against being hasty to pass the bill, warning that doing so would not give them the desired results.

Castro also noted that Lacierda made the call to fast-track the vote at a time when the “defects” of the RH bill are slowly coming to light.

“It’s just sad that at a time when the real facts about child mortality, maternal deaths and the defective provisions of the RH bill are exposed, Malacañang wants to fast-track the voting,” Castro said.

Senator Gregorio Honasan warned against “railroading the proceedings” on Senate Bill No. 2865 whose impact, he said, would not be felt “until the next generation.”

The Senate resumed plenary debates on SB 2865 last Wednesday.

House Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales doubts that a counterpart RH measure in the lower chamber could be put to a vote before the recess in October.

Arroyo reminded Lacierda that the debates were just in their first month and senators were “so engrossed in them.”

He described the deliberations on the RH bill as “intellectually challenging and spiritually compelling.”

“The debates cannot be rushed because we are all learning, myself included,” Arroyo said, adding that more discussions were vital for the lawmakers and the people to know more about the controversial measure.

Arroyo earlier said that the number of senators in support of or against the bill remained “pretty even.”