Contact Details

Rm. N-411, House of Representatives, Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines
+63 2 931 5497, +63 2 931 5001 local 7370

Press Statements

PRESS STATEMENT
Tel No. 4155455
Mobile No. 0918-9120137
14 April 2010

 

I, together with the Lakas-Kampi allies in Albay like Tabaco City Mayor Krisel Lagman-Luistro and Legazpi City Mayor Noel Rosal and a host of municipal mayors and officials will remain steadfast in our support for former National Defense Secretary Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro, Jr. for President.

Gibo Teodoro is a cut above the rest in competence, capacity, integrity and sincerity.

His politics and campaign are anchored on issues and principles without any mudslinging and character assassination.

No less than Dr. Mahar Mangahas, the dean of Filipino pollsters, in a paper for the Second International Conference of Public Opinion Polls in Cairo, Egypt last November 2009 asserted that:

“The effect of election surveys is small, and may even be more pro-underdog rather than pro-bandwagon. 52% of the voters are unaware of them. 32% are aware but say the surveys have no effect on them. 8% said the surveys have influenced them to switch votes partly to favored candidates and partly to underdogs. 5% said the surveys have induced them to switch to underdogs. Only 3% said the surveys have induced them to switch to favored ones.”

Not a few say that it would be unfortunate and a waste if Gibo Teodoro does not win the Presidency because of his sterling qualifications.

In order to avert this misfortune, we must campaign and vote for Teodoro and prove the surveys wrong because the real survey is conducted on election day.

Press Release
PRESS RELEASE
26 February 2010

Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera is leaving the Department of Justice with an unfinished business: her failure to answer in writing the letter dated 11 February 2010 of Rep. Edcel C. Lagman on why alleged Legacy scam mastermind Celso delos Angeles is in a condominium suite instead of in a prison cell.

Lagman said that Devanadera’s persistent refusal to formally answer his query “smacks of apparent complicity in the improvident discharge of delos Angeles from the St. Luke’s Medical Center and his transfer to the nearby Cathedral Heights Complex.”

“While contemporary American pyramiding culprit Bernard Madoff is now serving a prison term, delos Angeles is holding political caucuses in the comfort of a condominium suite”, Lagman added.

Devandera must respond to the following questions before she leaves the DOJ to actively pursue her bid for a congressional seat:

1. Why did the DOJ prosecutors fail to successfully oppose the transfer of delos Angeles from his hospital bed to a condominium suite, and bring him instead to a detention cell?

2. Why does it take so long for DOJ prosecutors to finish the preliminary investigation of the many criminal complaints against delos Angeles, including a string of non-bailable syndicated estafa cases?

3. Why are pending warrants of arrest against delos Angeles not served up to now?

Lagman lamented that “after billions of pesos have been marauded from Legacy banks and pre-need establishments, and countless investors victimized, delos Angeles continues to elude and mock justice under the very noses of the DOJ officials.”

“This is a scam after a scam”, Lagman stated.

Press Release
PRESS RELEASE
26 February 2010

Rep. Edcel C. Lagman said that he and his fellow reproductive health advocates in Congress unequivocally laud and fully support the initiative of Health Secretary Esperanza I. Cabral for government to “give contraceptive pills to interested couples.”

Lagman, the principal author of House Bill No. 5043 on Reproductive Health and Population Development, stressed that the plan of Cabral is consistent with the freedom of informed choice on which the RH bill is firmly anchored.

The RH bill provides that the State upholds and promotes the right to informed choice and that “the freedom of informed choice, which is central to the exercise of any right, must be fully guaranteed by the State.”

Press Statements
PRESS STATEMENT
03 October 2009

 

Nature abhors excesses, like an inordinate population growth rate which exacerbates climate change and the deterioration of the environment.

The recent tragic flooding of many areas in Metro Manila and the provinces attests to this verity.

A smaller population would avoid (1) habitation of river banks and conversion of former river beds into residential subdivisions; (2) minimize the volume of solid waste which clog waterways and drainage systems; and (3) reduce the denudation of forests by lowlanders seeking shelter and livelihood in forested areas, all of which contribute to flooding.

In 2004, Conservation International-Philippines, the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) conducted a much needed study entitled “Mapping Population-Biodiversity Connections in the Philippines” (MPBCP) which examined the interrelatedness of rapid population growth and the continuing deterioration of our environment.

The study confirmed that a ballooning population is central to the problems of air and water pollution, loss of biodiversity, depletion of agricultural land and animal habitat, global warming and many other crucial environmental issues.

The British medical journal Lancet recently underscored the connection of population dynamics, reproductive health and rights and climate change. It asserted that reducing unmet need for family planning “could slow high rates of population growth, thereby reducing demographic pressure on the environment.”

Lancet also cited a British report which says family planning is five times cheaper than usual technologies used to fight climate change. According to the report, each $7 spent on basic family planning would slash global carbon dioxide emissions by more than 1 ton as opposed to at least $32 spent on green technologies.

Typhoon “Ondoy” is an eye-opener on the critical immediacy of enacting the reproductive health bill on family planning, responsible parenthood and population development, which is principally authored by Rep. Edcel C. Lagman.

Promoting both the natural and artificial methods of family planning is truly cost effective in protecting the environment from the onslaught of population explosion.

The UNICEF has prescribed that “family planning could bring more benefits to more people at less cost than any other single technology now available to the human race.”

Press Release

Rep. Edcel C. Lagman
24 September 2009

“The enactment of the RH bill will tremendously enhance the country’s meeting its commitment to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, particularly improvement of maternal health (MDG 5) and reduction of infant mortality (MDG 4).”

This was underscored by Rep. Edcel C. Lagman, principal author of HB No. 5043 on “Reproductive Health, Responsible Parenthood and Population Development”.

Millennium Development Goal 5, which aims to reduce maternal mortality by three-quarters between 1990 and 2015, is the MDG least likely to be achieved.

In the Philippines, 11 women die daily from pregnancy or childbirth-related causes. The Maternal Mortality Ratio in the country was 209 per 100,000 live births in the early 1990s. In 1998, MMR fell to 172 but has stagnated thereafter to 162 up to 2006.

“At this pace of reduction, the target of reducing MMR to 52 by 2015 will be unattainable unless a law on reproductive health which will encourage voluntary family planning is put in place,” Lagman said.

Quoting documents from the Department of Reproductive Health and Research of the WHO, Lagman said that “of the more than 500,000 maternal deaths worldwide, one-third could be prevented by the correct and consistent use of contraceptives and about 1 million deaths of children under the age of five could be prevented with effective family planning methods.”

The UNFPA emphasized that “about 90 per cent of abortion-related deaths and disabilities worldwide could be avoided if women who wished to plan their families had access to effective contraception.”

Statistics from the UNFPA also reveal that of the more than half a million maternal deaths annually worldwide, 99% happen to women in developing countries like the Philippines.

In addition to the current 131 coauthors of the RH bill, seven more members of the House of Representatives have signified their intention to coauthor the bill, Lagman disclosed.