Time running out for RH bill proponents - Miriam

MANILA, Philippines - Time is running out for the proponents of the reproductive health (RH) bill and unless a vote is taken by January 2013, the controversial measure could just as well be buried in the archives of Congress.

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago admitted this after delivering a speech during the Catholics for Reproductive Health event at the University of the Philippines yesterday, where she encouraged all the supporters of the RH bill to put some pressure on the legislators to put the measure to a vote already.

The Senate will go on a break from Sept. 22 to Oct. 7, go back to work for two weeks before taking another break from Oct. 20 to Nov. 4.

While she would like to have the RH bill voted upon before the break, Santiago admitted that this would not happen because of the dilatory tactics the opponents of the bill have taken to delay its progress.

Santiago lamented that even though the RH bill has already hurdled the period of interpellation, it is still being subjected to debates led by the opponents of the bill.

Sen. Pia Cayetano, Santiago’s co-author and co-sponsor of the RH bill, has already introduced her committee amendments to the measure but the opponents of the bill have indicated that they would still want to raise some more questions, as though it is still in the period of interpellation.

“The status is that all the questions have been asked but now the opposition is asking questions even though they belong to the same group. They are pretending there are still more people to interpellate,” Santiago said.

“Our opponents are questioning each other. Now they have come up with the idea that they need to interpellate each other. They are in the same group and yet they are questioning each other. So the process is clearly dilatory,” she added.