Student leaders urge Congress to pass RH bill

MANILA, Philippines - Student leaders from the country’s top colleges and universities have joined various calls for Congress to pass the Reproductive Health bill.

The RH bill is currently being debated in plenary in both houses of Congress.

“For us, the RH bill is pro-youth and to be anti-RH is to be anti-youth,” said Gibby Gorres, National Secretary-General of the Student Council Alliance of the Philippines (SCAP).

SCAP is an organization composed of 150 member universities, colleges and student political parties all over the country.

“We believe that more than 10 years of debate is enough time for our leaders in the House and in the Senate to make a decision,” said Benjamin de Leon, president of the Forum for Family Planning and Development (The Forum), a non-government organization pushing for the passage of the RH bill.

“I support the passage of the RH bill because millions of young people suffer from RH related issues such as HIV/AIDS, teen pregnancy and even maternal deaths,” said Robby Camagong, former student council member of De La Salle University and officer of SCAP.

“The voice of the youth should not be ignored in the debate on the RH bill,” he said.

According to the National Demographic and Health Survey, 10 percent of Filipino women aged 15-19 years old are already mothers.

“Needless to say, a legislator who is deaf and blind to the needs and sentiments of his or her constituencies, especially young people, does not deserve a seat in Congress,” Gorres said.

Gorres said he is confident that the student councils can exert influence among students in their schools even in their support for pro-RH candidates in the upcoming May 2013 elections.

“RH will be the main agenda of the youth for 2013. We see that RH is an issue of our generation more than anyone else’s. Congress must end the debates and vote for the passage of this long overdue bill,” Heart Diño, chairperson of the University of the Philippines-Diliman Student Council, said.

“A vote for RH is a vote for 2013,” she said.

Diño made history for being the first transgender to be elected as student council chair of the University of the Philippines.

Among the SCAP members who expressed support for the RH bill are student leaders from UP Los Baños and Manila, University of the East, Philippine Normal University, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Ateneo de Manila University and Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Muntinlupa.