Sotto thumbs down RH debate with youth groups

Senate Majority Floor Leader Vicente "Tito" Sotto III has turned down the suggestion of at least two youth organizations that he engage in an academic debate with them on the controversial reproductive health (RH) bill. "We are already debating it in the Senate. No point in debating it outside," Sotto told GMA News Online in a text message on Monday. The senator, who strongly opposes the passage of Senate Bill No.2865 or The Reproductive Health Act of 2011, issued the statement after Akbayan Youth and the Ateneo Debate Society (ADS) asked him to participate in a academic debate on the controversial measure. The RH bill is a highly contentious issue in the Philippines which is predominantly Catholic. The Catholic Church accepts only natural family planning methods while the RH bill promotes both natural and artificial methods of contraception. Not flattering Sotto said the two groups' proposal to conduct a debate different from the one being held in the Senate was "not flattering" to SB 2865's sponsors — Senators Pia Cayetano and Miriam Defensor-Santiago — who have been defending the RH bill in the chamber. Akbayan and ADS challenged Sotto to a debate after the senator doubted the frequently cited data saying that 11 maternal deaths occur every day in the Philippines. Sotto, however, had said that he has been to several public hospitals and that he has yet to see proof of the said figures. He likewise said that Akbayan should not immediately believe figures just because they came from the United Nations, which he said had always provided him with wrong data in the past. Anti-women? Moreover, Sotto denied the two groups' claim that he was anti-women because of his statements against the maternal deaths data. "I established and created a Women and Children Crisis Center un the Visayas and going strong I'm putting up one in Luzon," Sotto said. "Yung mga detractors ko, may nagawa na ba para sa kababaihan? My mother was one of the stalwarts of the Women's Rights Movements. My grandfather is the author of old law allowing women to vote. They are messing with the wrong guy," he said. Youth groups' challenge In an earlier statement, Akbayan Youth chairperson Leloy Claudio said, “We challenge Sotto to a debate. Our youth group can sponsor such a scholarly exercise. I am sure the good senator has a lot more from his intellectual armory than arguments which seemed to have been culled from Wanbol University." "Our group has always practiced responsibility in analyzing data. Our activist background demands that we be discerning of information regardless of the source. We know when to respect and accept the truth and when to demolish outright lies," Claudio said. "Unfortunately, Sen. Sotto can't do the same. In the name of fake discernment, he refused to believe a fact backed by national and international scientific institutions. He must think he is the only credible source around. Such arrogance," Claudio added. On the other hand, ADS President Job de Leon, in a separate statement issued Monday, said “The ADS believes that Mr. Sotto should accept the offer issued by one of our alumni. If he’s confident in his ideas then he should be able to defend them." - VVP, GMA News