Palace prepares responsible parenthood bill

To come up with a win-win solution on the much-debated reproductive health (RH) bill, President Benigno Simeon Aquino III decided to have his own version and called it the“responsible parenthood" (RP) bill. Aquino ordered his Cabinet to draft the bill based on the RH bills filed in Congress and the suggestions of the religious sector. The draft will be presented to the President on Friday for his approval. “So we changed that RH Bill, we renamed it (responsible parenthood bill) and then ‘yung details naman ‘non is…the only guideline that the President made was dapat ma-consider ‘yung mga suggestions ng mga religious sectors on this," Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. said in an interview over state-run Radyo ng Bayan on Thursday. Aquino will be presenting the RP bill, together with 11 other priority bills he will choose, to the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) he will convene later this month. In a separate interview, deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said the RP bill reflects more of the stand of the President on the issue. “I believe he has already mentioned that we want to focus on information, on the kind of information that will be given and the subjects that will be taken up for the information drive," she said. Aquino said on Wednesday that he wanted to include in the bill the setting up of natural family planning centers apart from the family planning methods being implemented by the Department of Health. “Napag-usapan yung responsible parenthood . . . walang pilitan, walang linlangan, may penal sanctions pag ginawa yun (We had discussed responsible parenthood. In the bill, there should be no pressure to parents. Such action should be penalized)," he said. “[The] access [to information], so everybody can decide on their own, will be there," the President added. – VVP, GMANews.TV