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
Office of Rep. Edcel C. Lagman
Independent-Albay
07 March 2012
0916-6406737 / 0918-9120137
         The authors and supporters of the reproductive health bill (HB No. 4244) welcome the move of the House leadership to call for a vote before the Lenten recess-the termination of the long-winding and repetitive interpellations on the controversial measure.
         Rep. Edcel C. Lagman, the principal author of the bill, said that “after 12 years of debate inside and outside the Halls of Congress, all relevant and even irrelevant questions had been asked and answered about the RH bill. There is absolutely no fresh argument or novel misconception against the bill.”
         The precursor of the current bill was filed in 1999 during the 11th Congress as HB 8110. Every Congress thereafter, similar or allied bills have been filed and discussed.
          It has been observed that “many registered themselves as interpellators but when their time comes to confront the sponsors, they either conveniently absent themselves or feign not being prepared,” Lagman added.
         The authors of the bill are calling on all prospective interpellators to rise and question the sponsors during the remaining session days before a closure of the debates is made.

Press Statements
Rep. Edcel C. Lagman
Independent-Albay
18 February 2012
0916-6406737 / 0918-9120137
 
        Whether the Bishops want a sit down dialogue or a grand debate on the controversial RH bill does not matter as long as they are willing and ready to engage face to face and collectively the principal authors of the bill.
 
        It has to be clarified, however, that our initial proposal was to have non-confrontational dialogues with the “religious representatives of the Catholic hierarchy” on the core provisions and concepts of the RH bill.
 
        The agenda should center on freedom of informed choice; the whole menu of family planning methods from the natural to the modern which are legal, medically safe and truly effective; recognition that the Philippines has a population problem; direct linkage among population, human development and poverty; and  adequate funding for reproductive health and family planning services, among others.
 
        The grand public debates could be held on the unresolved principal issues after the dialogues.
 
        Since the Bishops are the leading oppositors of the RH bill, we also propose that they should be the principals in either or both the dialogues and debates.
 
        However, it would be fine with us if the Bishops want to be represented by lay proxies, although the fact that Bishops are unmarried is a non-issue.
 
        One does not have to be married in order to appreciate the import of reproductive health and its salient features, in the same manner that one does have to be a woman to espouse maternal concerns or has to die first to accept that death is inevitable.

Press Statements
  • Rep. Edcel C. Lagman
  • Independent-Albay
  • 15 February 2012
  • 0916-6406737 / 0918-9120137

 

         The House Minority must be able to choose more relevant and seasonable issues in confronting the Aquino administration.

         The public auction sale of the government’s property in Baguio City was a transaction that happened as early as 1992.

         It is a relic which should be consigned to the archives rather than exhumed as a possible ground for impeachment of President Aquino since it is bereft of legal and factual anchorage.

         The execution of the deed of absolute sale by President Aquino on September 16, 2011 in favor of the winning bidder and purchaser, the SM Group, which fully paid the purchase price in 1997, was only confirmatory of the legal transaction and mandated by law.

         Responsibility and candor demand that non-issues should not be floated as serious concerns.

 

  

Press Statements
  • Rep. Edcel C. Lagman
  • Independent-Albay
  • 15 February 2012
  • 0916-6406737 / 0918-9120137

 

  • LAGMAN TO ARCHBISHOP TAGLE:
  • TALK ALSO WITH RH AUTHORS

 

        Without prejudice to continuing the plenary debates and consideration of the RH bill, its principal authors led by Rep. Edcel C. Lagman, Independent-Albay, want to have “enlightening sessions” with religious representatives of the Catholic hierarchy.

         Since the RH bill is pending in Congress, the call of Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle for the resumption of dialogues should not be limited to Malacañang officials but must include Congressional leaders, particularly the major proponents of the measure.

         The dialogues can be conducted separately or jointly with Palace representatives.

         The agenda for the meetings should include the following core provisions of the RH bill:

         (1)    The central concept is freedom of informed choice on the use of family planning methods from the natural to the modern which are legal, medically safe and truly effective;

         (2)    There shall be neither compulsion nor bias in favor of a particular family planning method;

         (3)    A full recognition that the Philippines has a population problem which is aggravated by limited resources and a precarious carrying capacity;

         (4)    There is an indubitable and empirical linkage between population and sustainable human development, including poverty;

         (5)    No human development agenda is achievable without addressing the issue on population;

         (6)    The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), particularly on improvement of maternal health, reduction of infant mortality, attainment of universal primary education and eradication of extreme poverty and hunger  can be made more attainable with the passage of the RH bill;

         (7)    The RH bill envisions a comprehensive and nationwide policy on responsible parenthood, family planning and population development which are not particularly addressed by existing laws and changing policies; and

         (8)    There is need to institutionalize and codify related statutes and policies on reproductive health, women’s rights, child nutrition and protection, prevention of violence against women and allied concerns, and earmark adequate funding.

Press Release
  • OFFICE OF REP. EDCEL C. LAGMAN
  • 7 FEBRUARY 2012
  • Rep. Edcel C. Lagman
  • Independent – Albay

 DEL CASTILLO IMPEACHMENT RAP

PURSUED DESPITE END OF PERIOD

              Insisting that session days spanning several calendar days can be reckoned as only one “session day” in the absence of an intervening adjournment, the majority coalition members in the House Committee on Justice rejected the motion of Rep. Edcel C. Lagman, Independent – Albay, that the committee has lost jurisdiction over the impeachment complaint against Justice Mariano del Castillo due to its failure to dispose of the complaint before the 60-day reglementary period expired last year.

              Lagman said that the majority's contention is “an aberration in chronology” even as it “ inordinately taxes the imagination and credulity for a session to go on in perpetuity day after day, and yet be considered as a single “session day”.

 

              By foisting a self-serving and erroneous computation, the House violates with impunity the Constitution and its own rule that the Committee on Justice has only 60 session days within which to resolve an impeachment complaint from the time it is referred to the committee.

 

             “A session day corresponds to a calendar day when the House is assembled and transacts business on a daily basis as documented in the congressional journal,” Lagman added.

 

             The impeachment complaint against del Castillo was referred to the committee as early as February 2, 2011 and according to Lagman as of February 6, 2012, 84 session days have elapsed or 24 days over the limited, albeit lengthy, 60 session days.

 

             Lagman urged that since the committee stripped itself of jurisdiction by its own inaction, the impeachment complaint must perforce be dismissed automatically.