Lagman predicts House approval of Reproductive Health bill

MANILA, Philippines - Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, principal author of the reproductive health (RH) bill, predicted yesterday that the House of Representatives would soon approve the measure.

The House is expected to finally put the bill to a vote on Wednesday.

Lagman based his prediction on the plenary votes last Monday and Tuesday that killed several amendments proposed by anti-RH congressmen, including Pablo Garcia of Cebu, Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro City and Karlo Nograles of Davao City.

However, some amendments introduced by Garcia, Rodriguez and Parañaque Rep. Roilo Golez, who is also opposed to the bill, survived after Lagman accepted them.

“The voting pattern rejecting all ‘killer’ amendments to the RH bill introduced by critics is irreversible, as succeeding nominal voting registered wider margins of victory for the RH advocates confirming the results of the viva voce voting,” Lagman said.

He said in all instances, the majority sustained his rejection of “emasculating amendments.”

The rejected amendments included two proposals from Garcia that would have limited RH benefits to married couples and excluded unmarried individuals, and stopped the government from promoting RH services and products.

A Rodriguez suggestion that would have declared in the proposed RH law that fertilization is the beginning of life was also voted down.

It is a “subject wherein legislators have no competence, since even medical experts have no consensus, much more unanimity, on the issue,” Lagman said.

A Nograles proposal to drop the adjective “reproductive” from “reproductive health” was likewise rejected.

The Nograles amendment “is unwarranted because the bill is on reproductive health,” Lagman said.

He readily accepted a single Golez amendment, which would ensure that the country maintains a viable population growth rate in case the proposed RH law is enacted.

“The insertion of the phrase ‘sound replacement rate’ as an RH goal is to avoid a very low population growth rate or even a zero growth rate. Many western European countries, even Japan and Singapore, are suffering from very low population growth rate and their populations are now on a tailspin,” Golez said.

He assured his pro-RH colleagues that the agonizing pace of the amendment process this week would move faster next week.

“We assure a very methodical, orderly period of amendments in the next two or three session days. We still need page-by-page review. Then vote,” he said.

He said he and other anti-RH members are prepared to vote on the bill “sooner than later” after “a few more amendments.”

“We have reached the denouement of the RH saga in Congress. I am proud and happy that whatever the outcome of the vote, Roilo Golez has given his modest contribution to the fierce national debate. I am fortunate to have been part of the 13th, 14th & 15th Congresses where the RH debate gradually rose in crescendo to the moment of truth,” he added.