Speaking publicly on the controversial RH Bill for the first time, 3 rd District Congressman Arthur Yap, holds the standing room crowd of more than one thousand attendees in the Santisima Trinidad Church, in rapt attention. Yap spoke on the Filipino Nation’s common ideals regarding life, protection for the family, mothers and the unborn, as enshrined in the Philippine Constitution. Yap reminded the people that these beliefs are shared by all Filipinos and that these beliefs clearly show Filipinos are preferentially pro-life. Yap cautioned the crowd from making a stand on the RH Bill solely on religious grounds as he repeated many times in his speech that the RH Bill issue is beyond Roman Catholicism since we are also a nation of other religious denominations and our laws apply to all concerned,  regardless of creed and race. Among specific provisions in the RH Bill Yap was critical of, was the provision on mandating that contraceptives will henceforth be classified as Essential Medicine, the free access and distribution of family planning supplies and commodities, as well as the fact that the Mobile Health Care Service van from which the distribution of these contraceptives and other family planning literature and supplies will be distributed from, will be funded by the Congressmen’s Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) Yap said that if made into law, the RH BILL will take money away from his medical and scholarship programs. “That will be disastrous” according to the neophyte lawmaker since he comes from a district with half of its population in the “E” class. Presently, thousands are receiving medical assistance, scholarships, farm-to-market roads, livelihood funds, accident and life insurance cards under the Congressman’s HEART program. If the RH Bill is passed into law, these benefits will be drastically reduced since funds will now be used to fund family planning programs. Yap ended his remarks by exhorting the people not to follow anybody blindly but to study the provisions of the RH Bill closely and make a decision based on facts and personal beliefs. He pledged that as long as he is the representative of the Third District, he has no choice but to continue to defend and protect the interests of the people he represents. And clearly, in this case, the people of the Third District are rejecting the RH Bill.