Sotto blocks move to prioritize RH bill in Senate

Senator Pia Cayetano's request to prioritize the Reproductive Health (RH) bill has been blocked by Senate Majority Floor Leader Vicente Sotto III. "With all due respect to all those who have pending measures...I would move that the Senate Bill 2865 or the RH bill be put first on the agenda and that the discussion be resumed," Cayetano said during Monday's plenary session. The RH bill is last on the Senate's agenda for the day. The measure is in the period of individual amendments. Cayetano said she hoped the Senate would tackle it first so that those who have pending amendments can finish Monday as the House of Representatives has supposedly committed to put the measure to a vote later in the day. "I think it is not unreasonable for me to request that we give the time today to discuss the amendments so that I can have time to put together a bicam and discuss this, otherwise...all of the discussions we have had will [be] put to waste if there will be no time for a bicam," she said. "We need to give it enough time, and given the break and the election coming up, I hope you will all see that this is a reasonable request on my part that amendments be taken up today so that we can prepare ourselves to vote," she said. "The reproductive health bill has been pending, and as you all very well know the Christmas break is coming. And given the nature of this bill, it being highly contentious, it is very important that we give what is due to the people and we give the sponsor the time to put it to its proper end," she added. But Senate Majority Floor Leader Vicente Sotto III, one of the vocal oppositors of the measure, objected to the request. He said that Cayetano should go by the Senate rules and follow the agenda. "That's the procedure in the Senate that's not only the procedure, that's also the tradition," he said. Sotto likewise said that they have never denied any request to put the bill in the agenda.   "We have never been unreasonable. We have always scheduled it every time we can. As a matter of fact it has reached the individual amendments stage," he said. But he said that Cayetano cannot force senators to propose their amendments if they are not prepared. "Hanggang February pa tayo, what is so important about passing it before Christmas kung sa tingin ninyo kaya ipasa at third reading after Christmas?" he said. "Ano ba itong mga grupong nasalikod nito nagkakandarapa na naman na itulak ito, ipilit ito," he added. Sotto, who is next to Sen. Ralph Recto as among those who will propose amendments, said that he wants to hear all of the amendments first before proposing his own. He also said he's not yet prepared because he has yet to receive at least 10 pieces of information regarding the bill he asked from Cayetano. Cayetano said she will "gladly oblige" once they resume tackling the bill. Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, for her part, said that the pro-RH lawmakers are not rushing the passage of the measure since it has been pending for 13 years. "We have to stop at some point, 13 years is enough," she said. She likewise said she sees no reason that they should be accused of railroading the bill since previous Congresses have allowed this kind of motion. "It's a mere procedural matter. It's not as if we are cutting somebody," she said. The Senate session is still suspended because of the issue as of posting time. — BM, GMA News