• Rep. Edcel C. Lagman
• Mobile Nos. 0916-6406741 / 0918-9120137
• 24 August 2011

               Once again the Supreme Court has come to the rescue of civil liberties. This time upholding the right to travel against derogation by administrative or executive zealots.

               The issuance of a TRO by a unanimous Court to stop the implementation of the Watch List Order (WLO) against Atty. Jose Miguel Arroyo was expected because the inclusion of his name in the WLO was made by the Secretary of Justice with precipitate haste and without due process even as there is no criminal case pending against Arroyo.

               I urge the House leadership to prioritize the enactment of House Bill No. 5111 which I authored protecting the right to travel and vesting in the proper court the sole jurisdiction to issue a Hold Departure Order (HDO) after due notice and hearing.

               In the absence of a law regulating the impairment of the constitutional right to travel, existing administrative issuances grant concurrent jurisdiction to issue HDO to the President, Secretary of Justice and the proper court.

               Pursuant to mere administrative fiat, inclusion in the WLO is a virtual HDO because the subject citizen cannot travel without getting clearance from the Secretary of Justice who could deny the application for clearance without clear parameters on the exercise of discretion.

               The Constitution provides that the right to travel cannot be denied “except in the interest of national security, public safety and public health, as may be provided by law.”

              HB No. 5111 is the requisite implementing statute mandated by the Constitution to protect the right to travel and delimit its denial.

• Rep. Edcel C. Lagman
• Office of the Minority Leader
• 19 August 2011
• Mobile No. 09189120137/09166406737

RH AND NATIONAL BUDGET

DESERVE EQUAL PRIORITY

           The Reproductive Health Bill (RHB) and the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) must enjoy equal billing as priority measures because the RHB complements the GAB.

           Minority Leader and Albay Representative Edcel C. Lagman, the principal author of the RHB, made this call as he underscored that “no amount of trillions of appropriations will be adequate if the increase in the national budget is eroded by an inordinate population growth because parents, couples and women are not fully afforded the right to responsibly and freely determine the number and spacing of their children.”

           The priority enactment of the RHB was recently given presidential imprimatur and has been included as one of the additional priority bills of the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC).

           Lagman, who was the Chairman of the Committee on Appropriations during the First Session of the 14^th Congress, said that the complementarities of the RHB and the GAB are clear in the following major instances:

           (1) Quality education will always be hampered by huge backlogs in classrooms, teachers and textbooks as the annual escalation of school enrollment outpaces the budget for education.

           (2) Healthcare expenditures will continue to rise if maternal and infant morbidity and mortality are not reduced because reproductive health information and services are not accessible to the marginalized and disadvantaged sectors.

           Empirical studies conducted by the Guttmacher Institute and Likhaan Center for Women’s Health have consistently shown that effective RH services reduce the prevalence of fatal high-risk pregnancies and result in millions of savings for the government.

           (3) Despite budgetary allocations and incentives for job generation, the problems of unemployment and underemployment will defy solution if the huge number of annual entrants to the manpower pool remains unchecked.

           Worldwide studies also show that excessive population growth bloats the unemployment rate and debases wage rates.

           (4) The appropriation for the protection of the environment and the containment of climate change is rendered deficient as the environment becomes the casualty of population influx and the country’s carrying capacity is impaired by unbridled population growth.

 A 2009 study from the London School of Economics on the interconnectedness of family planning and environmental degradation concluded that “each $7 spent on basic family planning would reduce CO₂ emissions by more than one ton.” By comparison, the use of low-carbon technologies will cost a minimum of $32 to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by the same amount.

It determined that family planning is more cost-effective than most low-carbon technologies and recommended that “family planning methods should be a primary tool in the optimum strategy for reducing carbon emissions.”

• Rep. Edcel C. Lagman
• Office of the Minority Leader
• 17 August 2011
• Mobile No. 09189120137/09166406737

 PALACE AMENDMENTS DO

NOT WATER DOWN RH BILL

          The acceptable clarificatory amendments which President Aquino proposed to the RH bill (House Bill No. 4244 on “Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health and Population and Development”) which he endorsed as a priority administration measure to the Congress did not water down nor dilute the bill since its salient features have been retained.

           The President himself rejected the insinuation that Malacañang watered down the RH bill as he explained that the principal provisions remain intact like freedom of informed choice, promotion of all medically safe, legal and effective methods of contraception, sexuality and reproductive health education among the young and adequate government funding.

           In fact, the Office of the President did not anymore craft its own version of a responsible parenthood bill and instead endorsed for priority enactment HB 4244 which the President considered “more comprehensive”.

           The proposal of the President to delete the provision on the “ideal family size of two children” has been previously submitted voluntarily by RH authors to the Committee on Population and Family Relations for adoption as committee amendments.

           The following amendments suggested by Malacañang are acceptable to the RH advocates in the House of Representatives:

           (1) Deletion of the phrase “sexual orientation” in the provision against discrimination found in the “Declaration of Policy” since non-discrimination based on “sex” is already encompassing;

           (2) “Funding support to promote natural methods of family planning” considering that all forms of family planning which are medically safe, legal and effective are to be promoted, with the modification that funds will be appropriated for modern-natural family planning methods consistent with the primary condition of effectiveness and as required by acceptors;

           (3) The requirement for accredited health facilities to provide a full range of modern family planning methods will be made optional to “hospitals owned and operated by a religious group” to respect religious beliefs;

           (4) Mandatory age-appropriate reproductive health and sexuality education shall start from “Grade 6” instead of Grade 5;

           (5) The teaching of values formation is modified by the phrase “with due regard to religious affiliation” in deference to religious beliefs; and

           (6) The qualification that the liable public official who prohibits or restricts the delivery of legal and medically safe reproductive health care services shall be one who is “charged with duty to implement the provisions of this Act”.

• Office of Rep. Edcel C. Lagman
• Tel No. 4155455
• Mobile No. 0918-9120137
• 16 August 2011

            The authors and advocates of reproductive health led by Minority Leader and Albay Representative Edcel C. Lagman commended President Benigno Aquino III for finally endorsing today the Reproductive Health Bill (HB No. 4244 or the proposed “Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health and Population and Development Act of 2011”) as a priority administration measure to the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) and to the Congress.

            No less than the President personally defended during the LEDAC meeting today his determination and decision to include the RH bill among his priority measures.

            Lagman, the principal author of the bill, said that most of the clarificatory amendments suggested by Malacañang are reasonable and acceptable.

            The expected enactment of the RH bill will enhance the achievement of the goals of the Philippine Development Plan (PDP), which was also presented to the LEDAC, since reproductive health, including family planning, impacts on all human development indicators like health, education, food security, employment, housing and the environment.

            A reproductive health law will also help the country approximate the fulfillment of its commitments on the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

            The prioritization of the RH bill also concretizes the overwhelming support of the Filipino people for responsible parenthood and reproductive health as national and comprehensive policies.

            The latest survey of the SWS which was conducted in June 2011 documents that 82% of the Filipino public favors informed choice on family planning and the use of public funds for all of the medically safe, legal and effective methods of family planning.