Aquino wants 'expeditious action' on RH bill, 12 others

(Updated 8 a.m. August 17) President Benigno Aquino III has given the controversial Reproductive Health bill an extra push by including Malacañang's version of the proposed measure, the Responsible Parenthood bill, in the 13 priority measures presented to Congress leaders. During Tuesday's "very productive" meeting of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC), Aquino proposed at least 10 amendments to the RP bill, arguably the most controversial among the 13 priority measures. "There are certain provisions that, upon reflection, are not necessary to achieve the desired aims, and that is what we have tried to achieve with the consensus of the processes with the legislature," Aquino said at a press briefing after the meeting. Aquino said he expects "expeditious action" on the priority measures. "I cannot speak for the co-equal branch, but I assume that by the next SONA we will be reporting a lot of these as actual laws," he said. Meanwhile, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines last Tuesday expressed dismay over Aquino's inclusion of the RP bill as an urgent measure, even urging the lawmakers to block the passage of the bill. The Church only favors natural family planning methods. Among the Aquino proposed amendments were the deletion of a provision fixing the ideal number of children in each family to only two, and changing the appropriate age for teaching sex education to children at 11 years old, or when the child is in grade six or in high school. Other provisions that Aquino wants amended include giving parents the option to hold sex education talks by themselves, and giving Church-based hospitals the right to distribute artificial or natural family planning methods within their jurisdiction. "This provision will be modified so that those that are church-based hospitals can practice their faith in recognition of freedom of religion enshrined under Article 3 of the Constitution," Aquino said. However, he said the RP bill will not turn into a watered-down take on its original version. Allies have numbers? In an earlier interview with GMA News' Jessica Soho, Aquino explained his omission of the RP bill from his July 25, 2011 SONA, saying: "We’re almost at the stage na tapos na yung debate." The President said that pro-RH bill legislators from Congress told him they will be able to get it to a vote by the fourth quarter. "They’re confident of their numbers that it will pass. So if I mention yung PR, what does it actually help? Yung mga against it naman lalo kong iga-galvanize into action, to make the process even more divisive," said Aquino. "So again beside sa, kunwari pwedeng tingnan ng iba, nanalo na yung advocates tapos yung paano ba sa Tagalog na iduduldulan mo pa na talo kayo, paano tatanggap?" Aquino told Soho.
Contentious issues Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, who was at the press briefing, said the Senate will be hard-pressed to pass to RH bill because of the contentious issues surrounding it. "In the case of the RH bill, we cannot assure that we will pass a version, period. It will take a full-blown debate in the Senate," he said. House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said it is high time for the RH bill to be discussed thoroughly by Congress. "Let it reach the point where we actually vote on it so that we do not add just another year to the 14 or 15 years that this bill has been pending," he said. The House has started its plenary debates on the RH bill while Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago has yet to conclude her three-part sponsorship speech on the matter. Very productive meeting Aquino described the LEDAC meeting, which lasted for four hours, as "very productive." "[We had] a subsequent agreement to not practice dilatory tactics, that you would continue revisiting issues that have already been tackled. So I think we were very productive," he said. The 13 priority bills are:

adequate protection and additional benefits for house helpers,

expansion of science and technology scholarship programs,

amendments to the Rural Electrification Law,

sin tax or restructuring the excise tax on alcohol and tobacco products,

amendments to the Human Security Act,

Data Privacy Act,

responsible parenthood bill, reproductive health and population and development,

expanded consumer protection,

reorganization of the Philippine statistical system,

amendments to the PTV-4 law,

provision for the delineation of the specific forest limits of public domain,

stiffer penalties for stealing and tampering with government risk reduction and preparedness equipment, and

amendments to the Lina Law or the Urban Development Housing Act of 1992. "I would like to inform the public that we would look at them very, very closely, but we will give every bill a fair hearing and pass them as soon as possible once we have studied the," Enrile said. Enrile said he is particularly inclined to support the proposal to amend the Human Security Act (HSA), which he authored. “I agree with the proposal of the President to amend [the HSA] because I do not remember that I put in my original version that the person to be surveyed ought to be notified first," he said. He also wanted the provision awarding P500,000 per day to a wrongfully arrested suspect to be scrapped as it was not included in his version. "It was insisted by some members of the Senate at the time, and it was pushed through in the bicameral conference committee." Enrile said the provision "more or less impedes the effective use of the measure to thwart terrorism in the country." For his part, Belmonte said most of the bills included on the priority list of the President are already being discussed at the House of Representatives. He noted that of the 22 priority bills Aquino gave to Congress earlier this year, 14 were approved in the House either on third reading or second reading. Of the 22 measures earlier proposed, three have been enacted into law — GOCC Governance Act of 2011 (Republic Act No. 10149), Rationalizing the Night Work Prohibition on Women Workers (Republic Act No. 10151), and Resetting and Synchronizing the ARMM Elections with the National and Local Elections in 2013 (Republic Act No. 10153). Sin taxes Aquino also said he wants to simplify the process of collecting taxes from alcohol and tobacco products. He said the revenues to be collected from sin products, once Congress passed the proposal, will be used to fund the government’s universal health care program. “The increase in revenues from sin taxes will be earmarked for funding the universal healthcare," he said. While the government expects around P60 billion in revenues from sin taxes, Aquino said the ultimate aim of the proposal is to cut the consumption of the sin products by Filipinos. — KBK/VS/LBG, GMA News