Miriam sees RH bill row in Congress spilling over to SC

The ongoing debates over the controversial reproductive health (RH) bill, which have already involved various sectors including the Malacañang, the Congress and the Catholic Church may eventually spill over to the Supreme Court, a senator said Sunday. Sen. Miriam Santiago said that even if the bill eventually passes through both houses of Congress, lawmakers opposed to the measure will likely question it before the Supreme Court. “Magtatagal ang RH bill, hindi natin maaasahang madalian ito kasi anuman ang resulta sa House of Representatives at sa Senado sa kanilang conference committee, sigurado na ang mga natalo ay tatakbo sa Korte Suprema. So we’ll probably see [results] after the end of 2011," Santiago said in an interview on dzBB radio. In the Senate alone, she said a new bill – “Protection of the Unborn Child Act of 2011" – was introduced and may be taken up at the chamber's health committee hearings. “Ngayon, matatapos na sana ang public hearing ng health committee, pero may nag-file ng Unborn Child Act bill... Sa halip na tapusin ang hearings, napilitan ang committee na palawigin ito para malaman kung pwede pa itong ang bagong bill isama sa compromise bill," she said. (The health committee would have wrapped up public hearings on my bill but the panel will now have to conduct more hearings to see if a compromise bill can be forged.) She said this will delay the sponsorship of her bill before the plenary. Call for 'respect' Santiago also renewed her call to opponents of the RH bill, including the Catholic Church of which she is a member, to respect each other’s views on the issue. “We should be tolerant of each other and have a pluralistic view of the moral universe," she said. She particularly lamented the argument of some priests and anti-RH groups that the bill is being sponsored mainly by makers of contraceptives who stand to gain from the bill’s passage. To illustrate what she called the unfairness of that argument, Santiago said the pro-RH forces could have accused the Church of opposing the RH bill because the more babies born from Catholic families, the more money the Church can get from baptism, confirmation and First Communion and eventually wedding fees. “Let us assume for the sake of argument... na ang pinakamalakas na suporta [sa RH bill] ay nakukuha galing sa mga nagbebenta ng condom at ibang contraceptive devices dahil kikita sila, eh. Ngayon kung sabihin naman natin na hindi natin bibigyan ng payo ang magulang tungkol sa kanilang pagtatalik at panganganak at pag-e-espasyo ng panganganak, e anak sila ng anak right? Ngayon, ilang binyag ang aabutin ng mga anak na yan? E di kikita rin ang Catholic Church," she said. (Let us assume for the sake of argument that the claim that RH bill is being sponsored by contraceptive makers because they stand to gain from it is true. Can we not argue as well that the Church does not want and RH bill because it does not want couples to be informed about their choices, so they bear more children and pay fees for their baptism, confirmation and First Communion? Can we not say [likewise] that the Church stands to gain financially if the bill is junked?) Santiago, however, clarified that she raised the “argument" only to show how unfair some Church officials had been in using "profit motivation" against the RH bill. — LBG, GMA News