The Palace is still optimistic that the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill will soon be put into law. Manuel Mamba, secretary of the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office said that President Benigno Aquino III himself is “adamant” that the bill be passed, but would like lawmakers to be in agreement with it.
Mamba said that the Palace believes it is better to wait for the amendments to be settled on so that it will have better chances of passing.
Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda claimed the same stand, saying that the Office of the President would rather wait for the discussions to be completed rather than respond to Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago’s call for the president to endorse the bill as urgent.
The RH Bill has been in the period of amendments since Aug. 6 after the president urged Congress to close the floor debates and begin amendments.
Several bills have been reviewed and passed recently, but the RH Bill it seems has been placed on the back burner as Congress has been unable to vote on it because of a lack of quorum.
Several exchanges between Rep. Kimi Cojuangco and House Majority Leader Neptali Gonzalez have given no assurances of what exactly is going on about the bill. Cojuangco claims that Gonzalez has totally disregarded the bill and has been misleading RH bill proponents by postponing its review.
Gonzalez has constantly denied Cojuangco’s accusations claiming that the reason the bill is not moving is only due to the lack of attendance in Congress. He stresses that he is supportive of the bill and appeals to other member of the Congress to come in attendance if they want the RH bill to move.
There are 287 members in the House of Congress and 146 attendees are required in order to build a quorum, The Philippine Star reported.
