God, US imperialism raised in RH debates

MANILA, Philippines—The principal author of the reproductive health (RH) bill is getting fed up.

As a result, House Minority Leader Edcel Lagman on Wednesday said he would no longer tolerate repetitive questions during the continuing floor debates on the measure, particularly those attacking the proponents’ religious beliefs.

Lagman was referring to Cebu Rep. Pablo Garcia’s interpellation on Tuesday night, in which he invoked religious intolerance and possible US interference, which Lagman said were irrelevant to the subject.

“I have tolerated that [religious] line of questioning,” the Albay representative said at a press conference.

“There has to be an end to questions not relevant. The permutation with respect to God and imperialism should rather give way to questions on the constitutionality of the RH bill, which we were expecting to be asked, or questions on the public funds that can be used to support RH and family planning measures, or questions on the appropriateness of funding requirements.”

Lagman also said the anti- and pro-RH sides should not resort to malicious statements or false propaganda.

“As far as I’m concerned, I said that already. That’s why Pabling [Garcia] went to another topic. I was thinking, from God, he went to [US] imperialism,” Lagman said.

What about Pacquiao?

Lagman said relevant questions should have been raised in order to educate the public on the RH bill and convince the lawmakers opposed to the measure to vote in its favor.

But he refused to say whether Sarangani Rep. Manny Pacquiao, an anti-RH advocate, was also being repetitive and irrelevant when the Filipino boxing icon mounted his own interpellation last week.

“If you are a participant in a debate, if you are a combatant in a battle, you’re not supposed to make an assessment. Let other people make an assessment. I have my own assessment and I don’t want to articulate that before you,” he told reporters.

Zambales Rep. Milagros Magsaysay, a member of the minority bloc opposed to the RH measure, said she believed that Pacquiao did not waste Lagman’s time during the interpellation.

Magsaysay said Pacquiao was not repetitive in his questioning. She said Lagman erred in telling Pacquiao that certain provisions of the bill had been amended when the period of amendments had not yet commenced.

“The exchange between Lagman and Pacquiao was very professional. There was no emotion shown on both sides, and you could see respect,” she said.

Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez said the only “emotion” shown in the debates on the RH bill came from Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who had said Pacquiao should back off from the issue, and from the champion’s mother, Dionisia Pacquiao, who had defended his stand on the matter.

The survey says…

At the same press conference, Lagman cited the recent Social Weather Stations survey showing that 11.3 million or 27.2 percent of Filipinos over the age of 18 were jobless.

He said this clearly exposed the detrimental effects of a lack of a comprehensive policy on reproductive health and family planning.

He also said empirical data linking high fertility and resulting population growth to persistent poverty and wage stagnation in developing countries like the Philippines should spur Congress to finally pass the RH bill.

Lagman said that based on research conducted by respected economists Ernesto Pernia and Aniceto Orbeta, rapid population growth expanded the labor supply, translating into either a decline in wages or an increase in unemployment if there was no commensurate increase in employment opportunities.

He likewise cited a World Bank study showing that rapid population growth was likely to depress wages at the bottom end of the pay scale in developing countries with disproportionately high levels of fertility among the lowest income groups.

“This means that workers in the lowest economic quintile, who are precisely the ones who are already the most impoverished, will also be the ones most affected by falling wages,” Lagman said.