Enough funds for RH – DBM

MANILA, Philippines - There are enough funds to ensure smooth implementation of the Reproductive Health Law this year and in 2015, Malacañang and the House of Representatives said yesterday.

They gave the assurance in the wake of concerns expressed by some lawmakers that the RH battle would soon shift to funding RH services.

“There is enough funding for RH programs for 2014 and certainly for 2015,” Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said in a text message to The STAR.

Asked about the amounts, he said he was out of the country “and will need to check the figures” when he returns.

The Department of Health (DOH), the principal implementer of RH programs, has a budget of P83.7 billion this year, while the Commission on Population has P299.8 million.

Abad’s wife Henedina, who represents their province Batanes in the House, voted for the RH bill.

The chairman of the House appropriations committee made a similar assurance on funding reproductive health programs.

“With the Supreme Court declaring the law as constitutional, we will certainly provide enough funds for its implementation, which ultimately benefit the poor sector of our society,” Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab said.

His committee is the panel that scrutinizes the annual budget.

He said he and his colleagues would most likely endorse whatever amounts the DOH or President Aquino would seek for RH services.

Ungab, who belongs to the ruling Liberal Party, voted for the bill. However, some members of his committee voted against it. They included Davao Oriental Rep. Thelma Almario, a committee vice chairperson who belongs to Lakas, the ruling party during the Arroyo administration.

Negros Occidental Rep. Alfredo Benitez, who voted for the measure after proposing some amendments, said he foresees that fireworks would again erupt when the House tackles funding for the RH Law in both the committee and plenary levels.

“The very nature of this issue has always been divisive. It will remain so for some time,” he said.

Benitez said among the amendments he and his colleagues from the Visayas had proposed was the scrapping of penalties for institutions and health care workers who would not participate in the implementation of the law.

“The deletion of provisions relating to punishment was carried in the House version. However, during the bicameral conference on the bill, these provisions were returned. It’s good that the Supreme Court scrapped them and deemed them as unconstitutional. We feel vindicated,” he said.

Isabela Rep. Rodolfo Albano III, whose father Rodolfo Albano voted for the bill, has also said funding would be the next contentious issue that pro-RH and anti-RH lawmakers would wrangle over.

He said RH supporters inside and outside Congress would try to lobby for as much funds as possible for the implementation of the law.

On the other hand, RH opponents would attempt to reduce funding for it by putting pesos and centavos to provisions that the Supreme Court has struck down, he said.

He suggested that the DOH should now estimate the amount needed for the implementation of the law and include it in its proposed 2015 budget.

“If the needed amount is part of the budget that President Aquino will submit to Congress, it will be difficult for the House and the Senate to reduce it. Even if anti-RH lawmakers succeed in making a reduction, the President can always veto it and restore his original proposal,” he stressed.

The original RH bill carried an appropriation of P3 billion, but anti-RH senators and House members succeeded in removing it.

The bill narrowly won second-reading vote in the House, 113-104. Administration allies led by Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. mustered enough support for it. The margin widened in the final and third-reading vote, 133-79, after Aquino certified the measure as urgent. The Senate approved it by a vote of 13-8. 

Speculation

Meanwhile, Belmonte branded yesterday as mere speculation reports that his chamber will next prioritize bills legalizing divorce, gay marriage and even abortion.

The House leader said what the chamber has lined up for deliberation and approval in the coming weeks are the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law, the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill and Resolution of Both Houses No. 1, which seeks to relax restrictive economic provisions of the Constitution to boost foreign investments.

“After the Supreme Court decision upholding the RH Law was announced, speculations have flooded media on the divorce bill being the next priority as well as gay marriage and even abortion. They are all just that right now – speculation,” Belmonte said in a statement.

He said while a bill seeking to legalize divorce was earlier filed in the House, his personal views on the issue as well as those of other lawmakers would be irrelevant at this point.

He said like any measure filed, the bill would have to go through the regular legislative process, including committee hearings.

“Divorce is not a legislative priority as there are vital pending measures that need attention including the Bangsamoro, the proposal to revise economic provisions in our Constitution and even the FOI as well as other measures that need to be addressed, mostly aimed at moving the country ahead and affording our people with a better quality of life,” Belmonte said. With Paolo Romero and Rainier Allan Ronda