Sen. Lapid takes floor against RH bill

MANILA, Philippines—In a rare moment, second-termer Senator Lito Lapid took the floor of the Senate on Tuesday to interpellate during a discussion on the controversial Reproductive Health bill.

Lapid, who had earlier expressed apprehension about participating in the RH bill discussion, cracked a joke when Senator Ferdinand “Bong-Bong” Marcos Jr. asked what language he would prefer to use in the discussion.

“Ano ang gusto mo (What do you want)? Tagalog or English?” Lapid answered in jest.

Turning serious, Lapid asked for understanding for if he spoke in Filipino rather than English.

“Nagpakuha na po ako ng tuwalya dahil papawisan po ako (I have already sent for a towel because I know I will perspire profusely),” the senator said in jest.

Lapid, during his interpellation revealed that he had lost a child and traced the child’s death to his wife’s use of an artificial birth control method.

Lapid, who has five children, said he lost his third child after he asked his wife to start using contraceptive.

“Noong una hindi kami nag family planning…’yong pangatlo, sabi ko mag-control na tayo. Ang ginawa ng misis (ko) nag injection sya…injection sa puwet. Nabuntis bigla itong asawa ko sa pangatlo. Noong iluwal yung pangatlo, may diperensya (At first we didn’t practice family planning, but after our second child was born, I told her let’s stop at two. So my wife used the injectable contraceptive, but she unexpectedly bore a third child and gave birth to a baby with defects),” he said.

Lapid said their third child was a blue baby and died of heart ailment at age nine.

The senator then asked his wife if they lost their child because of the medicines she took to stop pregnancy.

“Sabi ko magsasalita ako at tatayo sa Senado, siya ang ihahalimbawa ko sa RH bill na ito (I told her I’d speak at the Senate and cite her case during discussion of the RH bill),” Lapid said.