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

 

ARMM ELECTION POSTPONEMENT

VOIDS AUTONOMY SAFEGUARDS

 

          House Bill No. 4146 postponing the elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and allowing President Aquino to appoint officers-in-charge (OICs) violates all the built-in safeguards on autonomy in the ARMM.

           On interpellation by Minority Leader and Albay Representative Edcel C. Lagman, it was categorically admitted by Cavite Representative Elpidio Barzaga, Chairman of the sponsoring Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms, that the Organic Act constituting ARMM, as amended, protects and preserves self-determination and self-governance in ARMM by providing for:

           1. Periodic and regular elections;

           2. Holdover of incumbent ARMM officials until their successors are elected and qualified;

           3. The power of the President over ARMM is limited to general supervision, which is stipulated both in the 1987 Constitution and the Organic Act;

           4. Any amendment to the Organic Act must be approved by an extraordinary majority of two-thirds vote of all members of the House of Representatives and the Senate voting separately; and

           5. An amendment is effective only when approved by a majority of the votes cast in a plebiscite in the ARMM for such purpose.

           House Bill No. 4146 wantonly disregards the foregoing safeguards because:

           1. Periodic elections are set aside and the electoral will of the Muslims in ARMM is put on hold;

           2. The provision on holdover is supplanted by Presidential appointments of OICs who will be beholden to and influenced by the President as the appointing power;

           3. The power of the President to exercise only general supervision over the ARMM has been unconstitutionally enlarged to include the power to control which is inherent in the authority to appoint OICs; and

           4. The requisite two-thirds vote of Congress and mandatory holding of a plebiscite are negated.

           The fact that previous postponements of ARMM elections were legislated without complying with the requisites to make amendments to the Organic Act effective and legal do not justify nor validate present or subsequent violations.

           Settled is the jurisprudence that previous infractions cannot legalize current or future violations because estoppel does lie against the State.

TV Appearances and Interviews

HOUSE MINORITY MEDIA ADVISORY

16 March 2011

 

ISSUE: Japan Disaster

 

We echo calls for an objective assessment of our country’s readiness to meet disasters of such magnitude as what Japan experienced. Should a similar scenario happens here, we need to know that our government is prepared.  We in the Minority have filed a resolution for an inquiry into the matter.

 Up to now, Filipinos in Japan, especially in Sendai, are still not fully accounted for.  We call on our Embassy in Japan to double its efforts in locating all our nationals and extending to them all necessary assistance.

 Pagtibayan natin ang ating kahandaan sa anumang sakuna.  Hindi na puwedeng kikilos lang tayo kung kelan nandiyan na ang problema. Maaga pa lang, dapat isaayos na ng administrasyon ang kanilang mga plano, para hindi na naman tayo mataranta sakaling may biglaang kalamidad.

 

 

 

ISSUE: Middle East Unrest

 

The worsening situation in the Middle East is alarming, not only because of the large number of Filipinos who are potentially in danger, but also because of the dismal performance that this administration has shown so far in looking after the welfare of our overseas workers.  There are 2.3 million OFWs in the region, including 1.8 million in Saudi Arabia.  If events in the Kingdom explode, what does the Pnoy administration plan to do?  Kung nagging malaking problema ang paglikas ng mga OFWs mula sa Libya, paano pa kaya kung mula sa Saudi?

 Ang Middle East ay pinanggagalingan ng halos $3 billion worth of remittances, o mahigit 11% ng remittances ng Filipino sa buong mundo.  Mahigit kalahati sa buong remittances mula Middle East, o $1.6 billion, ay galing sa Saudi. Lalong pabigat, ang Saudi ay pinakamalaking supplier ng petrolyo sa buong mundo, kaya’t asahang bumulusok ng presyo ng gasolina sakaling lumala ang sitwasyon doon.  Isipin na lang natin kung gaano kalubha ang magiging epekto nito sa ating ekonomiya?

 Ano ang gagawin ng  kung sakaling bumalik ang 1 million OFWs sa bansa na walang trabaho?  Samantala, sunud-sunod naman ang nakaambang pagtaas ng halaga ng gasolina, pamasahe, LPG, tinapay, de lata, tuition fee, gatas, noodles… at iba pang pangunahing bilihin.  Mayroon na bang planong gawin ang administrasyon ni Pnoy? 

 Bakit hindi buhayin ang nakaraang mga plano na naging epektibo naman sa paglikas ng mga OFWs sa Middle East, sa pag-antabay sa presyo ng gasolina at mga pangunahing bilihin? Gaya ng nakaraang administrasyon, maaga pa lang ay dapat mayroon nang nakahandang contingency plan ang gobyerno ni Pnoy.  Hindi biro ito.

 

 

 

 

 

ISSUE: Ombudsman Impeachment

 

 

Notwithstanding the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee report, we welcome the assurances of our counterparts in the Senate that they will follow due process and will not be swayed by the Palace.  The Senate is the last proving ground where the right to a fair trial of the Ombudsman, or any impeachable official, should be upheld. The impeachment should not just be a political exercise, but an exercise of adjudicatory powers entailing adherence to certain Constitutional tenets and judicial procedures on due process.  We are confident that the Senate will be ready to dispense these powers with independence and impartiality.

 ISSUE: Fare and Commodity Price Increases

 

There were already indications even long before that oil price increases may happen because of the troubles in the Middle East.  The increase in oil prices should have long been anticipated and contingency measures put in place a long, long, time ago.  Nakakaawa ang kalagayan ng ating mga tsuper ng dyip, commuters, at ordinaryong mamamayan, na lubhang bumibigat sa bawat pag-alagwa ng presyo ng pamasahe at bilihin.

 Noong 2008, pinakamataas sa kasaysayan ang presyo ng pandaigdigang krudo na $147.27 kada bariles, pero umabot lang sa P57-60 ang presyo ng unleaded kada litro sa lokal na gasolinahan.  Bakit ngayon, ang presyo ng unleaded ay aabot na sa P55 kada litro, samantalang ang presyo ng krudo sa pandaigdigang merkado ay lagpas lamang ng ilang dolyar sa $100 kada bariles?  Ano ang ginawang tama noong nakaraang administrasyon, at ano naman ang ginagawang mali ngayon?

 Samantala, sunud-sunod naman ang nakaambang pagtaas ng halaga ng gasolina, pamasahe, LPG, tinapay, de lata, tuition fee, gatas, noodles… at iba pang pangunahing bilihin.  Mayroon bang konkretong plano ang gobyerno para maibsan ang kahirapan ng ating mga kababayan dahil sa pagtaas ng bilihin? 

Press Statements

          

          There is need for devil’s advocates so that the reproductive health bill can be canonized into final enactment.

           If 55 anti-RH legislators have been listed to interpellate the sponsors of the reproductive health bill, then why is it that no one is prepared to interpellate despite the readiness of the RH authors to answer questions in the plenary since last Monday, 14 March 2011?

          There is need for an immediate high level confrontation through plenary debates even as the RH advocates are certain that their measure will survive the furnace of interrogation.

           Deputy Speaker Raul Daza and Rep. Amado Bagatsing, who are known opponents of the bill, told Minority Leader and Albay Representative Edcel C. Lagman, the principal author of House Bill No. 4244, the consolidated substitute RH bill, that they would be ready to interpellate only in May when sessions resume after a long break.

           The procrastination of the oppositors of the RH bill is a signal victory for the reproductive health measure because it validates the reality that the RH advocates have the superiority in arguments as well as in numbers while the oppositors are merely employing dilatory tactics.

           Delaying the passage of the RH bill is a defeatist strategy.

Press Statements
  • Office of the Minority Leader Edcel C. Lagman
  • 0916 6406737
  • 932 5412 / 9315497

    •  

  • The ultimate culpability in the fatal hostage taking fiasco was with the Office of the President which lost control of the situation due to the lack of leadership and competence of concerned executive officials in confronting and solving the crisis.

     

  • With respect to the hostage fiasco, the onus of culpability should not be thrown to the Ombudsman who has become the Aquino administration's favorite “whipping boy”.

     

  • The filing of charges against former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and other officials of the past administration does not depend on the ouster of the Ombudsman in an impeachment proceeding which could take time.

     

  • Proper cases can be filed anytime before the Ombudsman and/or Department of Justice which are the duly constituted bodies with appropriate prosecutorial jurisdiction.

 

  • The statement attributed to the Chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee that the Ombudsman should also be impeached for the “Garcia plea bargaining deal” fails to consider that the one-year-bar-rule prohibits the filing of another impeachment case against the Ombudsman before the expiration of the one year from the filing with the House of Representatives or referral with the Committee on Justice of the current impeachment complaints.

 

  • However, said recommendation highlights the following:

                  1. Contrary to popular perception, the Ombudsman is not presently being impeached for her supposed role in the “Garcia plea     bargaining deal”.

     2. It is a virtual admission that the present complaints are weak and could not legally prosper so much so that there is need to supplement the pending complaints or file a new one.

 

 

 

 

Press Release

 

          “The start of the sponsorship and eventual plenary debates on the RH bill in the House of Representatives is one small step for RH advocates but one giant step for Filipino women,” announced a jubilant Rep. Edcel C. Lagman.

           The House Minority Leader and Albay Representative is the principal author of House Bill 4244 or the “Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health and Population and Development Act of 2011” which was sponsored on March 8, 2011, the centenary of International Women’s Day.

           In his sponsorship speech, Lagman enumerated the following reasons why the country needs an RH law:

           1. It will (a) protect and promote the basic right of parents to freely and responsibly plan the number and spacing of their children because all forms of legal, medically-safe and truly effective family planning methods will be made available; (b) enhance the right to health as it improves maternal, newborn and child health and nutrition, and reduces maternal, infant and child mortality; and (c) effectuate the people’s right to sustainable human development.

           2. It will definitely help lower the incidence of abortion by preventing unplanned, mistimed and unwanted pregnancies – the very pregnancies which are terminated through abortion. There is an inverse relationship between contraception and abortion as studies conducted by the Guttmacher Institute reveal that correct and regular use of contraceptives can reduce abortion rates by a staggering 85%.

           3. It will enhance the ability of the Philippines to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), whose common denominator is reproductive health and family planning. Virtually all the MDGs, but especially the goals which pledge elimination of gender-based discrimination; decrease in infant deaths; safe motherhood; and the prevention of the spread of HIV and AIDS, are closely related to reproductive health and family planning.

           4. It will buttress the country’s anti-poverty agenda because without a clear policy on RH, government’s anti-poverty strategies will continue to be undermined by a ballooning population as an inordinately huge population growth rate aggravates existing poverty.

           5. The promotion of reproductive health is cost effective. It is much cheaper than the mega projects of government which have much lesser beneficiaries and riddled with corruption. The improvement of maternal and infant health and reduction of maternal and infant mortality and morbidity also generates multi-billion savings for the government in terms of reduced expenses for maternal and infant medical care which could be channeled to education and other basic services.

           6. The RH bill goes beyond family planning. RH is all encompassing. Aside from family planning information and services, its expansive coverage includes, among others, maternal, infant and child health and nutrition, including breastfeeding; prevention of HIV-AIDS and other STDs; elimination of violence against women; youth RH and sexuality education; and male responsibility and participation in reproductive health.

           7. The RH bill is constitutional. It maintains unconditional fealty to Section 12 of Article II on State Policies which pertinently provides: “It (the State) shall equally protect the life of the mother and the life of the unborn from conception.” The overriding purpose of this provision is to preempt the Congress and the Supreme Court from legalizing abortion. House Bill No. 4244 is indubitably against abortion. It unequivocally provides that “nothing in this Act changes the law against abortion”. Contraceptives are not banned by the Constitution. This is so because contraceptives like pills, injectables, condoms and IUDs are not abortifacients.  

           Lagman asked his colleagues to support the passage of the RH bill “so that every Filipino child will be born wanted and the miracle of life will not mean death for 11 Filipino mothers daily.”

           He underscored that an RH law “will give premium to life and make every woman and child truly count.”