RH bill to remain in limbo at House

The controversial Reproductive Health (RH) bill is not among the priorities of the House of Representatives when it resumes session two weeks from now, leaders of the chamber said Monday. "Wala yan sa priority agenda (That is not in the priority agenda)," said Majority Leader Arthur Defensor Sr. in a phone interview with GMANews.TV. "Di pa namin pinag-uusapan yung RH (We have not yet discussed RH)," he added when asked whether the chamber will form pro- and anti-RH panels to conduct floor debates on the controversial measure as initially proposed. House Bill 5043 - or An Act Providing for a National Policy on Reproductive Health, Responsible Parenthood and Population Development - is currently up for plenary debates in the House. The bill proposes, among others, mandatory age-appropriate reproductive health education starting Grade 5 and the purchase of contraceptives by state hospitals as part of its essential medicines and supplies. Its Senate version, Senate Bill 3122, is also up for interpellation. The RH measure's push for both natural and artificial contraceptives has been slammed by the Catholic hierarchy, which espouses only natural family planning methods. Catholic leaders claim that the the proliferation of artificial contraceptives would give rise to immorality and promiscuity. Congress will resume session on January 18, and will only have nine session days to tackle pending legislation before it goes on a break again on February 5 for the election campaign season. According to Speaker Prospero Nograles, there are about 16 priority measures that the chamber would tackle during the three-week period. This includes the measure calling for a constitutional convention that would propose amendments to the 1987 Constitution "if the Senate would conform," Nograles said. The House began tackling on the floor House Concurrent Resolution No. 32, which proposes the election of con-con delegates on Oct. 25, 2010, last November. Also among the list of priority legislation are measures proposing the charging of regulatory fees from telecommunication firms and the installation of a metering device; the modernization of the health care delivery system; and the Magna Carta for Students. The said measures are now in their advance stages of committee deliberations, Nograles said. “We have more in the legislative pipeline, but we have to trim the list to be practical because of time constraint," Nograles said in a statement. The House and the Senate are also set to finish bicameral conference committee meetings to reconcile their versions of measures on the Witness Protection Program, the National Disaster Management System, the Mindanao Development Authority, and the granting of good conduct time allowance to prisoners who participate in literacy/skills and values development programs in penal institutions, among others. - KBK, GMANews.TV