House to end RH bill interpellations, Senate faces own stumbling blocks on bill

After a meeting with President Benigno Aquino III on Monday afternoon, both critics and supporters of the reproductive health (RH) bill agreed to end debates on the measure and move the legislative process forward.

 

Deputy Speaker Lorenzo Tañada said about 180 pro- and anti-RH lawmakers reached a consensus to terminate interpellations on the measure, which have lasted for more than a year now.

 

The House of Representatives will therefore take a vote on whether or not to continue debates on the controversial reproductive health bill Monday afternoon 

 

The House was originally supposed to take the vote on Tuesday, August 7.  

 

“Wala naman kasing mawawala sa kanila [anti-RH lawmakers] if puputulin na ‘yung debates. They will always have the chance to oppose amendments. That’s why we decided to move forward,” he said in a phone interview.

 

The decision was reached after the lawmakers met with President Benigno Aquino III in an all-party caucus in Malacañang on Monday afternoon. Aquino had identified the RH bill as one of his priority legislations last year.

 

Tañada said the President appealed to House members to let the legislative process take its course on the controversial measure.

 

“All he was asking was for us to move the bill forward. He said he did not want the bill to end on debates itself,” the lawmaker said.

 

RH bill in the Senate

 

Meanwhile, the Senate’s version of the RH bill hurdled its period of interpellation last June. At least nine senators interpellated on the bill.

 

Senators Pia Cayetano and Miriam Defensor-Santiago, sponsors of the bill, were the ones who answered questions posed during interpellation.

 

However, the RH bill will still have to hurdle the period of amendments before the senators can go into a vote and approve it on second and third reading.

 

Once it is approved on third and final reading, it will be submitted to the House of Representatives for consideration. But since the House has its own version of the bill, either chambers may choose to adopt the other's version or reconcile their two bills during a bicameral conference.

 

After approval by the bicameral conference committee, the measure shall be submitted to the President for signing. 

 

Senate to 'wait and see'?

 

But in an interview with reporters on Monday, Senator Franklin Drilon said the Senate should "wait" until the House acts on the RH bill.

 

"My position personally is we vote on the Senate version once the House would act on the RH bill.  It doesn’t make sense. If they fail to pass it, what will we do here?" he said.

 

The Senate bill may have an even longer wait as RH Bill critic and Senate Majority Floor Leader Vicente Sotto III said that he will deliver a "turno en contra" against the bill possibly on Wednesday before the Senate goes into the period of amendments.

 

"It’s our turn, our turn to speak, they [those in favor of RH] have spoken for over a year, including the interpellations, it’s our turn to speak," he said in an earlier interview.

 

"It might take us 3 to 4 chapters to do it, but we’ll do it as fast as we can," he added.

 

Drilon, however, said that though it was allowed in the rules and is a parliamentary practice, this is the first time he's heard of a turno en contra made against a bill. 

 

"Traditionally that is availed of in the budget debates.  I have not in my 13 years here in the Senate have heard of a turno en contra in measures other than the budget," he said. — DVM, GMA News