![FPOP [Family Planning Organization of the Philippines] — “Quality of life is our vision”](../../../site/img/spacer.gif "FPOP [Family Planning Organization of the Philippines] - “Quality of life is our vision”")
WHILE THE REPRODUCTIVE health (RH) bill has been deemed a non-priority of the Senate, the chair of the Senate committee on Health and Demography, and concurrent chair of the committee on Youth, Women and Family Relations will be pushing for its adoption when Congress resumes on Jan. 17.
Sen. Pilar Juliana S. Cayetano said Sunday that the committee on health, which conducted its initial public hearing last year, intends to set the succeeding hearings early this year -- either in January or February -- depending on the "availability of key resource persons" and of hearing rooms.
The hearings were initially set for November and December but had to be rescheduled as hearing rooms were full because of the budget hearings, she said.
"There is a legislative process that must be observed and as chair of the primary committee that is taking up the RH Bill, it is my duty to take the proposed measure through said legislative process whether it falls under the priorities of the current Senate majority," said Ms. Cayetano.
On Dec. 16, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile admitted that the RH bill is "not a priority in the Senate, but it is something that we could not avoid to confront." He deemed it "one of the most debatable and the most serious pieces of legislation that will confront both Houses of Congress."
Sticky issue
A sticky issue appears to be contraception, as the senators took out the budgeted amount for contraceptive pills, injectables and condoms in the 2011 budget, and transferred it to education for the enhancement of the state colleges and universities, among other programs.
Mr. Enrile, for his part, said, "We have to minister to the birth of the child because that is also a matter of life and death. But to have a bill that assumes that [pregnancy] is something to be cured like a disease just like malaria will carry a lot of disagreements and a lot of discussions."
Senate Majority Floor Leader Vicente C. Sotto III has repeatedly said that contraceptives are in violation of Article 2 Section 12 of the Constitution which says the State shall guarantee the protection of the unborn child.
However, Ms. Cayetano said in a text message to BusinessWorld that there are many components of the RH Bill, "including the urgency of addressing the country’s high maternal death rate and the need to lay down a national policy on family planning."
Ms. Cayetano had erstwhile noted that the Philippines is lagging in maternal health care due to the lack of an official reproductive health policy. She pointed out that at least 11 women die every day while giving birth due to the lack of a law that provides for a state policy on prenatal health care, family planning and an overall reproductive health program.
The RH Bill, she has commended, will provide women greater freedom of choice to decide how many children they will have through family planning.
Last August, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago filed Senate Bill No. 2378 which "compels the state to guarantee universal access to medically safe, legal, affordable, and quality reproductive health services, methods, devices, supplies, and relevant information on the matter."
Ms. Cayetano stressed that the inputs of all stakeholders will be heard during the next hearings.
As for supporters, she noted, "It is premature and pointless to start counting how many senators are for or against bill when it hasn’t even reached plenary yet." -- Johanna D. Poblete
(Article taken from Business World Online Edition, 3 January 2011)
