Sen. Tito Sotto denies inventing story on son's death

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MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Vicente "Tito" Sotto III on Wednesday fired back at his critics, calling them "callous" and "insensitive" for questioning his claim that his son died due to side effects of contraceptives.
Sotto singled out former Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral and Iloilo Rep. Janet Garin for questioning his earlier statement that his wife's contraceptive use caused their son's heart condition, which later killed him.
"I would like to take exception to statements made by Esperanza Cabral, former secretary of health during the time of Gloria Arroyo, and to a certain extent Congresswoman Janet Garin," he said.
"I find their statements callous and insensitive and it is unfortunate that the reproductive health debate has come to this level. They should have given the sorrow of my family more respect," he added.
Cabral earlier dared Sotto to produce his son's death certificate and hospital records to show the actual cause of death of the 5-month-old baby.
She noted that Dr. Carmen Enverga-Santos, obstetrician of Sotto's wife Helen Gamboa, is already dead and cannot confirm or belie Sotto's claim.
Garin, meanwhile, said Sotto should consider suing the doctor for the mental anguish she caused by linking contraceptives to Vincent Paul's death. She said Sotto's wife might not have been taking birth control pills  under doctor's supervision.
On Thursday, Sotto produced his son's death certificate, saying he will give copies to advocates of the Reproductive Health Bill.
"Bibigyan ko sila ng kopya. Baka akala nila di ko papatulan," he said.
He also said his wife used Diane Birth control pills under the supervision of Dr. Santos.
"She was supervised by her doctor while using it. Intelihente naman po yung asawa ko. Alam niya kung paano gumamit nito," he said.
Sotto said even his own mother, Dr. Herminia Castelo-Sotto, agreed that Vincent Paul's heart condition was linked to Gamboa's contraceptive use. He noted his mother was a staunch women's rights activist and the first Medical Commissioner of Workmen's Compensation Commission of the Department of Labor and Employment.
"Ayon sa kanila (Sotto and Santos), ang pagbubuntis ng aking maybahay na si Helen kahit may contraceptives at gagamit ng contraceptives ay maaaring naging sanhi ng complication, prematurity at eventually pagkamatay ng anak namin. Bakit ko iimbentuhin ang katotohanang ito?" he said.
Contraceptives are abortifacients
Sotto reiterated that contraceptives are abortifacients and pose serious health risks to women and children born to mothers who use contraceptives but still get pregnant.
He challenged his critics to answer him point by point instead of attacking his character via posts on Facebook and Twitter.
"May mga nananakot pa. Kung sa mga drug lords hindi ako natakot, sa kanila pa," he said.
The senator said he does not intend to call for a complete ban on contraceptives nor does he intend to stop people from using contraceptives. However, he said it is his duty as a lawmaker to study the implications of the Reproductive Health bill on all Filipinos.
He said the book "The Greatest Experiment Ever Performed on Women: Exploding the Estrogen Myth,"
 by Barbara Seaman, shows the serious side effects of estrogen use. He said the book showed that in a  cohort of 50,282 preganancies, 19 children with cardiovascular defects were born to 1,042 women who received female hormones during their pregnancy.
"I don't need to be a doctor to know the possible complications on children from women who take birth control pills but still get pregnant," he said.

Bloggers react to Sen. Sotto on belittling bloggers

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MANILA, Philippines – Senator Vicente Sotto III’s anti-Reproductive Health Bill speech at Senate prompted negative reactions from the bill’s advocates, and  allegations that parts of it were plagiarized from a US-based blogger have only fanned the flames.
In an interview on ANC’s Headstart, Sotto denied basing his speech on a blog post by Sarah Pope, and said his speech was based on a book by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, a neurologist known for her work with the Gut and Psychology Syndrome.
This syndrome establishes a connection between digestive and mental health. Oral hormonal contraceptives, or the Pill, McBride said, cause a bacterial imbalance in the digestive system, which is bad for the health.
“Yung blogger na sinasabi nila, pareho kami ng pinagkunan eh, si Natasha Campbell-McBride. Bakit ko naman iku-quote ‘yung blogger, ang kinu-quote ko si Natasha McBride,” Sotto said.
Bloggers and other netizens went up in arms at what they believe was a wrong move for Sotto, and also attacked his supposed belittling of one of them, as in his interview with Karen Davila, he also said, “Bakit ko naman iqu-quote ang blogger? Blogger lang iyon.”
However, other online Filipinos have also defended Sotto, saying his quote was merely taken out of context. They also said they respect the Senator, as he has a firm belief in what he is fighting for.
The alleged plagiarism has even spawned all sorts of jokes on social media, with some saying Sotto's speechwriter is his daughter Ciara, who staunchly defended her father on her Twitter account.

US blooger accuses Senator Tito Sotto as a "Lying thief"

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An American woman has called Sen. Vicente Sotto III a “lying thief” and accused the Senate majority leader of plagiarizing her blog during an acrimonious debate on the reproductive health (RH) bill that pitted supporters of the bill against the Catholic Church and other sectors that consider artificial contraception as abortion.

Sotto initially denied using part of Sarah Pope’s blog when he argued against the bill to distribute contraceptives in government-run health clinics, but after the salty label came out in her blog on Thursday, the senator’s chief of staff, Hector Villacorta, acknowledged that they had used Pope’s blog without any attribution.

The senator continued to deny the plagiarism allegation, saying that both he and Pope had cited the same source, Russian-born physician Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride who claims that contraceptives cause an imbalance between good and bad bacteria in the intestines that breaks down the defense against infection.

He also took exception to the blogger’s charge that he is “a lying thief.”

‘Umbrella attribution’

“They must be mistaken. What I delivered in the plenary is different from the one that was written,” Sotto said in a telephone interview.

“I have an umbrella attribution [in my speech],” he added, referring to his disclaimer that what he said on the floor was based on research and not his own.

Sotto also referred to Article 6 Section 11 of the Philippine Constitution which says in part: “No member [of Congress] shall be questioned nor be held liable in any other place for any speech or debate in the Congress or in any committee thereof.”

“Why would I quote from a blogger? She is just a blogger,” Sotto said.

Villacorta said he saw nothing wrong with using Pope’s blog without any attribution because it is “public domain” and “blogs are not covered by copyright.”   He added, “It is a new media and there is no jurisprudence yet.”

‘Dilatory filibustering’

In the House of Representatives, supporters of the RH bill are bracing themselves for the possibility that the measure would not survive what the RH bill’s principal author,  Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, has described as “the malevolent and dilatory filibustering” of lawmakers opposed to House Bill No.  4244.

Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin, a coauthor of the bill, said there was an “understanding” among proponents that the measure would no longer be filed in the next Congress should it fail in the current one.

“If it loses, (the bill) will not be tackled in the next Congresses anymore,” Garin said in a phone interview, recalling discussions among her colleagues prior to the Aug. 6 vote that terminated plenary debate on HB 4244. “If (the bill) is tackled at all, perhaps it would only come after a few years, perhaps after 10 years,” she said, adding that she and other proponents remained “committed” to passing the RH bill into law.

Not yet mature

Garin said that if the RH bill were defeated in the 15th Congress, it would be “a proof that our country is not yet mature for that law.”

But whatever the House vote is on HB 4244, the Iloilo representative said legislative work on the measure should be completed.

“Our point is, if you don’t want to pass it, then vote against it,” Garin said. “To be fair to everybody, including the real Filipino people who really want this bill, let’s decide on this. If we have the numbers, then okay.  To be honest, we’re also not sure (if we have the numbers),” she said.

“If we don’t have the numbers, at least, the people would know that (the bill can’t be passed) so we can probably proceed with existing programs, depending on the political will of local chief executives,”  Garin said.

In June this year, Health Secretary Enrique Ona announced that his department would distribute around P500 million in condoms and other contraceptives to help address the problem of rising maternal mortality in the country.

In Davao province, the Tagum city government has been implementing its own reproductive health program, spending at least P1.5 million annually, according to a previous Inquirer report. Since 2006, at least 4,390 women have reportedly availed themselves of the city’s free tubal ligation program.

Stalemate

House members are in a stalemate on HB 4244 after they an adjourned the plenary session on Wednesday without settling Rep. Roilo Golez’s motion to suspend further deliberations on the measure.

Golez wanted the chamber to focus on the devastation caused by the heavy monsoon rains in Metro Manila and neighboring provinces last week, a move dismissed as a dilatory tactic by proponents of the RH bill.

“The scheme of the oppositors to take undue advantage of House Rules on questions of personal or collective privilege to delay and derail the start of the period of amendments, violates the mandate of the plenary to move forward the RH bill,” Lagman said in a statement.

“Why terminate the long-winding and repetitive interpellations only to temporize and hold hostage the legislation?” he added.

No middle ground

But Golez accused the RH bill proponents of delaying the bill themselves when they moved for adjournment on the two session days when the House opened the period of amendments on HB 4244. The decision, according to Golez’s camp, meant that the other side did not have enough numbers on the floor.

Rep. Florencio Noel, who is openly against the bill, said he was not optimistic that both sides could reach a “middle ground” on the measure.

“While there are compromises that can be made, I see that there are more disagreements,” he told the Inquirer on the sidelines of the plenary deliberations. With a report from Norman Bordadora