The Philippine Online Chronicles

Senators have agreed to conduct regular sessions to discuss the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) Bill.

The Senate will be alloting one and a half hours on Mondays and Wednesdays to discuss the bill until the debate is closed on second reading.

According to the manifesto on the calendar for RH Bill debates, “in the daily agenda, the RH bill should be called first, provided the debate for each day shall be limited to one-and-a-half hours to accommodate other pending bills.”

Among those who signed the manifesto were pro-RH bill legislators Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Pia Cayetano, Panfilo Lacson, Edgardo Angara, Alan Peter Cayetano, Franklin Drilon, Teofisto Guingona III, Gregorio Honasan II. Loren Legarda, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Sergio Osmena III, Francis Pangilinan, Ramon Revilla Jr., and Manuel Villar.

The RH bill debates resumed yesterday amid reports that anti-RH senators are planning to raise a privileged motion to postpone the plenary debate.

“If true, any gag order would be an unfair trick on the public which is following the debate in the two chambers,” Santiago said.

President Benigno Aquino III listed the RH bill as among the top priority bills during the previous Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council, despite the firm opposition of the Catholic Church and other groups.

Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines-Episcopal Commission on Family and Life executive secretary Fr. Melvin Castro previously said there is no need to pass the RH bill, citing a University of Washington study saying that maternal deaths in the Philippines has dropped by 81% from 1980 to 2009. Meanwhile, maternal mortality rate in the country is at 4.6 deaths a day, according to “Trends in Maternal Mortality: 1990 to 2008” of the World Health Organization, United Nations, and World Bank.

Castro said that with the results of these studies, the government does not need to pass the bill into law but only needs to improve the existing reproductive health services for women.

However, Deputy Majority Leader Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin said, “I agree [maternal deaths] is declining, the extent of which is dependent on the variance of the method being used. However, it is also clear that mothers are still dying. Nobody should die giving life.”

“The RH law is needed so as to immunize the provision of RH services from too much politics, The huge impact on mothers dying, especially on her children and her husband, is something we can't just turn blind to,” the lawmaker said.