Reproductive Health Bill 5043 [MERGED]

[CoDer]

If you can call delaying tactics and introducing endless amendments "tackling"...

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/20...ew-amendments?

Obviously, some of Enrile's amendments are purely delaying. His most contentious one was shot down after an hour of arguing.

Actually, split on Recto's LGU amendment. If you did give them the responsibility and budget, that might be more occassion for corruption... But it might be too much load on the underequipped regional DOH offices to do it alone.

But if ose regional offices receive extra budget, better. They need it.

Enrille is still playing the delaying tactics card.

And to quote him on his so called Conception Definition.

Enrile said that he also consulted experts in coming up with his proposed definition and that if any question would arise about this, it would have to be settled by the Supreme Court.

“If there is any controversy and if it is true that the theory of one of the sponsors is correct that the State cannot intrude in this domain, then whose opinion will matter and become definitive except the Supreme Court,” Enrile said.

[Monseratto]

Actually, split on Recto's LGU amendment. If you did give them the responsibility and budget, that might be more occassion for corruption... But it might be too much load on the underequipped regional DOH offices to do it alone.

The RH bill slowly made ineffective be the All-Male gang of Ralph Recto, Neptali Gonzales, JP Enrile, and Tito Sotto...

How to kill a bill
by Marilen J. Dañguilan
Posted on 11/22/2012 7:10 AM | Updated 11/22/2012 7:50 AM


What a coup! Sen Ralph Recto was able to emaciate the RH bill, snuffing out its life. In his amendments, local government units (LGUs) and private institutions are no longer mandated to provide RH services such as family planning and emergency obstetric and newborn care. If the RH bill becomes law, it would be practically useless.

Recto’s amendments would disable two critical components of the health care delivery system – the LGUs, i.e., the 80 provinces, 138 cities, 1,496 municipalities, and 42,026 barangays; and the private hospitals that compose about 60% of the total number of licensed hospitals in this country.

This is like installing power stations throughout the regions without setting up the transmission wires and transformers to distribute electricity to the households.

No mandates for the LGUs

Take Recto’s first amendment, the lifting of the mandate on LGUs.

Recto’s reasons are: a) he does not like mandates; he does not like the State to tell LGUs or the private sector what to do; and b) LGUs are not all that rich and many could not afford RH services.

The Senate approved this amendment, even when they know fully well that making a law and implementing it are not two separate and distinct activities; one reinforces the other. They also are aware that the success of any law’s implementation would rely, to a great extent, on those who are primarily tasked to implement it, the LGUs, in this case, in partnership with the national government.

Recto’s amendments focused on the operational aspects of the bill, unlike Sen Juan Ponce Enrile’s, that touched on philosophical, emotion-laden matters such as “the equal rights of children, youth, and the unborn” and on the centuries-old issue of when human life begins.

Recto, on the other hand, went for the kill.

He raised the nuts-and-bolts issue of costs, and implicitly the cost-effectiveness of RH services, as well as the capability of LGUs, particularly those that are struggling and impoverished, to implement the RH law. He framed these discussions within finite budgets to accommodate infuriatingly infinite mandates that impose on already overstrained LGUs. And all this, under the threat of jail terms for LGUs which do not comply.

Recto envisions a country where LGUs, even without any mandate, would ensure that each and every woman or man would be able to access RH services. But this simply is not the case.

LGUs have different priorities from the national government’s. If one takes a look at the Department of the Interior and Local Government Performance Challenge Fund, one could gauge the priorities of LGUs. Projects are mainly on infrastructure such as farm-to-market roads, irrigations systems, flood control canals and waterways, market stalls, among others. Health, particularly reproductive health, hardly emerges as one of the priorities of LGUs.

There are of course LGUs that have their own RH charters. But some, even without charters, strive to provide RH services such as Aurora, Sulu, Asipulo, Ifugao, Nueva Vizcaya, Quezon City, and Davao City. But this is not the norm; these are the outliers.

And this explains why, despite our having a high literacy rate and a relatively decent GDP growth, we have 2.2 million women whose contraceptive needs are not met and about 4,288 women who die every year from pregnancy and childbirth.

That’s why it is extremely important to mandate and legislate -- particularly on services like reproductive health that national and local governments have not funded and provided.

Now, with the Senate’s approval of Recto’s amendment, the national government would be unable to effectively harness the powers of one of the most important and indispensable implementing political structures that could make a success of the RH law – the LGUs.

No mandates for private health facilities

The other amendment that Recto introduced, and which the Senate approved, is that private health facilities are not mandated to provide RH services. The reason behind this amendment is, once again, Recto’s strange aversion toward mandates.

Health facilities, private and public, are essential components of any health care delivery system. They provide health services directly to people. And private health facilities have always been a significant provider of such services in our country. In 2009, 60% of hospitals were privately owned and about 49% of patients were confined in such hospitals, according to an Asian Institute of Management study.

Like Recto’s amendment on LGUs, his amendment on private health facilities cuts out another crucial implementation arm. This limits the effectiveness and reach of the RH bill.

Despite this, all hope is not lost.

In the upcoming bicameral conference committee, our legislators can still bring the RH bill back to life by reversing Recto’s two amendments. They can mandate the LGUs and private health facilities to provide RH services. It is, after all, their duty to do so.

And just so they remember: We have a right to these services. - Rappler.com

(Marilen Dañguilan, medical doctor, did postgraduate studies on public policy and public administration. She was the head of the technical staff of the Senate Committee on Health in 1987 and has engaged in policymaking on health since then.)

[niky]

The RH bill slowly made ineffective be the All-Male gang of Ralph Recto, Neptali Gonzales, JP Enrile, and Tito Sotto...

See, here's the problem. I agree that private institutions and companies should not be forced to provide care that is not emergency care or necessary. But the LGU issue is different... Is the amendment only to prevent RH in the provinces, or to shift responsibility to the regional DOH offices? That's an important point.

[marg]

Looks like the PRO-RH are Winning.

"The most important thing is we have tested the sentiment and the sentiment is in favor of the bill," Ganzales said.

Pro-RH solons have maintained their numbers as indicated by the 99-73 vote to reject a killer amendment Monday and the 100-74 vote to deny another amendment Tuesday. Rappler, Dec 5, 2012

The days of the catholic Damasos are numbered.

[Retz]

kailangan ma release na kasi ang pork barrel ng mga congressman.

[explorer]

pandak did everything to get the Catholic church leaders stick with her unpopular administration...

from: www.interaksyon.com

Ex-DOH chief blames Arroyo, Church for sharp increase of HIV infections in PH

By: Karl John C. Reyes, InterAksyon.com
December 3, 2012 8:04 PM

MANILA, Philippines - Former Department of Health (DOH) secretary Alberto Romualdez has blamed the Arroyo administration for the rise of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) cases in the country.

Romualdez said the previous administration's alleged obedience to the Catholic Church's dicates to stop the distribution of free condoms had resulted in the sharp increase in the number of Filipinos who had contracted the dreaded disease.

Romualdez, DOH chief during the Estrada administration, recalled that it was in 1997 when the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) informed the Philippine government of its plan to phase out donations of reproductive health (RH) supplies, including condoms, to developing countries.

“But USAID gave us a timetable. And the DOH said, ‘it was okay, we'll start...our own procurement so that supplies would not run out’,” Romualdez told Senate reporters on Monday after forum on HIV/AIDS initiated by Sen. Pilar Juliana "Pia' Cayetano.

“Unfortunately, we changed leadership in 2001 and the new (administration) under the influence of the Church put an embargo on the procurement of (reproductive health) supplies by the national government,” added Romualdez.

According to the former DOH chief, it was during the phase-out of the USAID donation from 2001 to 2006 that the incidence of HIV rose steeply. However, he said the Arroyo administration had refused to procure condoms for HIV prevention.

Romuladez said the DOH at the time had to rely on a separate donation from the United Nations Population Fund, “which was a smaller (volume) compared to what the need (was).”

“That’s the connection. It was in 2001 when the procurement stopped, so the government was not able to (replenish) the products that were being phased-out by USAID and other donors. In 2006, when the supplies finally ran out, the incidence of HIV began to climb,” he said.

“The purchase order (for condoms) was disapproved. It was stopped because of pressures from the Church. An embargo (was imposed) on all kinds of RH supplies,” added Romualdez.

Romualdez stood up at one point during the Senate forum and noted from the Power Point presentation made by DOH Assistant Secretary Dr. Eric Tayag, head of the National Epidemiology Center (NEC), that the incidence of HIV infection shot up in 2006 when the supplies of condom were running out.

Figures from the NEC showed that from 1997 to 2001, HIV incidence in the Philippines was less than 1,000 cases a year.

During the early years of the Arroyo administration, Tayag showed a graph indicating that from 2002 to 2006, the annual incidence increased to more than 1,000 and finally increased by 668 percent from 2007 to 2012.

Tayag’s presentation also showed that from one new case of HIV every three days in 2000, the DOH recorded one new case a day in 2007.

In 2010, the department recorded four new cases a day that later increased to seven new cases after a year.

At present, the DOH lists nine new cases a day of HIV infection, most of which occur in men who engage in *** with other men (MSM).

Romualdez said it was in 2006 when the annual increase rose to 26 percent from only 18 percent in 2005 and 17 percent in 2004.

“As you can see from the graph, we were low and slow on HIV infection until 2006,” said Romualdez.

The ex-DOH head said the department during the Estrada administration distributed condoms for free in areas with populations known to engage in MSM and other “risky ***ual behaviour.”

Tayag’s report also included the following:

Over the last decade, the number of Filipinos infected with HIV has risen by more than 25 percent;

The Philippines is now among the countries where new HIV/AIDS infections have increased by 25 percent in the last decade including Bangladesh, Georgia, Guinea-Bissau, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova and Sri Lanka according to the 2012 Global Report of the United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS);

The situation in the Philippines is the reverse of “trends in many low- and 2012 middle-income countries… able to reduce the rate of HIV infections by more than 50 percent from 2001 to 2011";

The age bracket between 15-24 years old is the fastest growing group in terms of HIV infection and

In MSM cases, the NEC reported that 45 percent of those who were infected with HIV said condoms were “not available” at the time of infection; 27 percent said they did not like to use condoms, 11 percent said their partner objected; 11 percent thought condom use was “not necessary”; three percent “forgot” to use condoms: another three percent said they did not know how to use condoms while one percent said condoms are “too expensive.”

Teresita Marie Bagasao, country coordinator of UNAIDS, urged senators to pass the RH bill, saying its education component would help young people understand human ***uality from a more scientific point of view.

Cayetano, principal sponsor of the RH measure, lamented that anti-RH proponents were bent to block its passage without consideration of the health repercussions that might result from inadequate information on human ***uality.

“They are testing my patience severely whenever I have to explain the RH bill. Education in general empowers the people and does not make them *** maniacs,” she said during the forum.

[Monseratto]

Malapit na matapos sa Senate! Sana sumonod na rin sa Kangkongress...

MANILA, Philippines – After much debate and drama, the Senate finally agreed to set a date to vote on the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) bill.

The chamber agreed to vote on the bill on second reading on Monday, December 17, and if passed, to vote on third reading on Thursday, December 20.

The agreement was made after a two-hour stalemate on principal sponsor Sen Pia Cayetano’s motion that the bill be tackled first on Monday, December 10, even if it was listed last on the agenda.

Cayetano said she needed to fast-track deliberations on the bill to ensure she has enough time for a bicameral conference committee. RH bill critic Senate Majority Leader Vicente “Tito” Sotto III objected, saying he was not yet ready with his amendments.

After the two-hour suspension of session, presiding officer Senate President Pro-Tempore Jinggoy Estrada made this proposal:
•On Wednesday, December 12, Sen Ralph Recto will finish introducing his individual amendments
•On Monday, December 17, Sotto will propose his amendments then the Senate will close the period of amendments and vote on second reading
•To follow the rule that there must be 3 days before the Senate can vote on third reading, the Senate will hold session on Thursday, December 20, to vote on the RH bill on third reading

The proposal was unexpected because there are usually no sessions on Thursday and the last session day before the Christmas break is on December 19, Wednesday.

Estrada’s proposal though came with a big if: that the House of Representatives will approve the bill on second reading this week.

“[We will vote] on the assumption if the House of Representatives will act on the measure. If the House of Representatives does not act on the measure, I think there is no point for the Senate President or for us to have a session on Thursday.”

Cayetano said she agreed with the proposal with the reservation that she is able to confirm with her colleagues that they will be present on December 20 for the vote.

She repeated her argument that the RH bill is now in a “point of no recourse,” with no other option but to force a vote because of the many delays.

“We put again the RH bill in a place of uncertainty, we put the RH bill at the mercy of me the sponsor having to agree because you are appealing to me so I will accept with the reservation,” she said.

Sotto also agreed but grudgingly.

“Yes, Mr President we will agree to your proposal as an accommodation that this be taken up at the soonest possible time and we finish as they requested. As I said, just to accommodate, not because we completely agree.”

Before Estrada made the proposal, Sen Miriam Defensor Santiago said that the session should not have been suspended in the first place.

She said the Senate should have just voted on Cayetano’s motion to tackle the RH bill first. Instead, the 2-hour suspension ate up the time for the bill and other measures.

“We will no longer tolerate any debate should we make similar debates in the future. If we for the sake of priorities defer consideration on the motion to transpose the calendar, under the rule 144 on unfinished business, we intend to consider it as unfinished business. Unfinished business at the end of the session shall be taken up at the next session, tomorrow, in the same status.”

Sotto replied, “Mr President we will take note of that although we would like to take note presiding officer can motu proprio suspend the session.”

Estrada said, “Before I suspended the session, nobody objected.” – Rappler.com

[Monseratto]

D-Day at congress. RH bill may be out to a vote. The Church brings out it's card...

[Monseratto]

Moment truth is at hand... after 16 long years!

Period of amendments on RH Bill has been terminated. House of Reps expected to vote on the fate of the measure shortly.

[marg]

The Bishops get in Congress but Taxpayers cannot.

Yan ang Style BULOK.

[Retz]

[marg]

Pro-Child Labor and Pro=Human Trafficker.

[CoDer]

Ongoing vote on RH Bill sa congress ngayon. Wa kwenta mga rason ng mga anti-RH, bunch of hypocrites.

[jut703]

The no votes are likely to win. What a sad night.

- - - Updated - - -

The no votes are likely to win. What a sad night.

[CoDer]

RH Bill is close to getting shot down in the house. Majority of the Trapos win and Padre Damaso will have a party today.

[jut703]

A yes from our final rep, Jose Zubiri from Bukidnon, seals the deal. The RH Bill moves on!

[jut703]

Yes - 113
No - 104
Abstain - 3

The RH Bill has passed the second reading.

- - - Updated - - -

Yes - 113
No - 104
Abstain - 3

The RH Bill has passed the second reading.

[CoDer]

Whew! 113 against 104.

Muntik na.

[Chikselog]

Bishops, U MAD?!

[TholitzReloaded]

Bishops, U MAD?!

anong problema ng mga Anti RH Bill?