‘No ouster plot vs JPE’

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang denied anew yesterday that it was involved in a reported plot to oust Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, who is opposing the passage of the administration-backed Reproductive Health (RH) bill. 

“We have always said that we have a good working relationship with the Senate President,” deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte told a news briefing at Malacañang shortly after President Aquino hosted lunch for a majority of the 285-member House of Representatives.

Valte stressed that Enrile has only one vote even if he is Senate president. 

“The Senate President has one vote as a senator. So, let’s just wait what will happen to them (Senate). The Responsible Parenthood bill is not the sum of the relationship between the executive and the legislature,” she said.

Valte repeated Aquino’s line that congressmen must finally decide on the matter either way, and that government will not impose on its allies, stressing only that it should be a conscience vote. 

She said three-fourths of the total House membership attended the RH bill caucus.

Among the House leaders she saw were Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. who acted as moderator of the event, Deputy Speaker Lorenzo Tañada III, House Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II, House Deputy Majority Leader Miro Quimbo and Batanes Rep. Henedina Abad. 

Pro-RH advocates still have misgivings about Aquino’s real or definitive stand on the issue, noticing that the President did not have any more zeal or passion for it, unlike in the impeachment case of former chief justice Renato Corona.

Sources said the President could use the pork barrel funds as leverage, since there is no really solid Catholic vote to speak of in the first place.

“I will appeal to them to, number one, make sure there is a quorum; number two, make sure that this will be decided upon. We need to have a decision either way. Whatever they pass, that is what the executive will implement,” he said.

Shortly after he assumed office in June 2010, Aquino had been mentioning the 95 million burgeoning population, which the government may find difficult to manage in the years to come.