Young lawmakers vow to focus on PH’s ‘immediate needs,’ not RH

MANILA, Sept. 29, 2011–Hundreds of young people gathered Wednesday to pledge support to nine neophyte lawmakers in their commitment to forward the “betterment of our nation” amid the battle waged by opposing camps around the issue of the Reproductive Health (RH) bill.

Rep. Gabriel Quisumbing (Cebu, 6th district) explained at the youth rally at the University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P) that their agenda is not solely about the P3-billion proposed budget for the RH bill, as stated in a signed manifesto the group called “9YL” published in major dailies this week.

“No matter which side you are in this issue, whether you are for it or against it, the important thing to remember is that we are all for the betterment of our nation,” he said.

The solon also repeated that education, health care and livelihood would be the main thrusts of young Congress officials, namely Reps. Dakila Carlo Cua (Quirino), Rachel Marguerite del Mar (Cebu, 1st district), Fatima Aliah Dimaporo (Lanao del Norte, 2nd district),  Lucy Torres-Gomez (Leyte, 4th district), Karlo Alexei Nograles (Davao City, 1st district), Irwin Tieng and Mariano Michael Velarde (Buhay Party List), and Lord Allan Jay Velasco (Marinduque).

“When we visit our constituents, what they ask for is medicine, they ask for education, they ask for jobs, they ask for peace…that we feel that the money to be appropriated for this [RH] bill can be better spent on,” Quisumbing added.

The legislative measure has caused an unhealthy division in the country in the past years when what we need is agreement on “common areas where we can work together,” Cua said.

“There have been name-calling, there have been lambasting, not only in government but also (among) common people like us,” he said.

Dimaporo cited the Philippines’ “more immediate” needs in health care and said that government budget should go to the top causes of death, which are heart and lung diseases.

“Will the [RH bill] immediately improve the health of mothers and other Filipinos?” she asked rhetorically.

Needed infrastructures, a better mass transit system and schools in and outside Metro Manila are also evident necessities in the country today, according to Cua.

The lawmakers reiterated what they published in their manifesto that their core belief is to “focus on what unites…rather than what divides,” and this would be on “time-tested approaches to creating wealth and development.”

A cause for life, for the future
Gomez told the audience of young pro-life advocates, composed of high school and university students from different educational institutions to “keep our eyes focused on the goal, remember what we’re fighting for” despite difficulties encountered in the cause to defend life.

“Human life is a gift. Human beings are assets and not liabilities. And the true wealth of a nation is really in its people,” the Leyte congresswoman said.

“If you remember that, it will simplify everything for us in the journey to come,” she added.

Cua also encouraged the youth to echo among their peers what their team of young lawmakers will push in the halls of Congress.

“I believe that together, if we can educate our fellow youth, if we can educate our fellow Filipinos, on an issue that really matters, then we can be more than millions of voices resonating and telling our government that this is not the answer to poverty,” the Quirino legislator said. (Camille Diola)