RH bill faces 2nd reading

Senators Miriam Defensor-Santiago and Pia Cayetano remain positive that the Reproductive Health bill could be passed in the 15th Congress.

Santiago said, "As I have predicted, we may have to pass it after the SONA, by August. That is our best hope," she refers to President Benigno Aquino III's State of the Nation Address.

The congress goes into sine die adjournment this week.

Santiago added they will be very relieved if that happens because the RH bill has been pending for decades in Congress. She thinks the general benefits will outweigh the doubts if they are still lingering in the minds of people who have been influenced by theology and members of the religious.
Santiago noted that subsequent to the impeachment trial, a number of of the senators strongly against the bill might have softened their stand.

She added, "I think that after all the violent argumentation during the impeachment trial, the senators are feeling much more conciliatory with each other, and hoped to move from their original positions to a more close and harmonious relationship with the sponsors of the RH bill."

Santiago stressed, "We finished virtually the entire panoply of questions that could possibly be raised. We are very patient, and we always retreated to allow more and more interpellations."

On the other hand, Cayetano as chair of the Senate Committees on Health and Demography and on Youth, Women and Family Relations, hopes that in that whole year that they have spent debating on the bill, her co-sponsor (Defensor-Santiago) and her have also been able to enlighten some of them on their questions and concerns. — ARA