MANILA, Philippines - Tempers continued to flare during the interpellations on the reproductive health (RH) bill before the plenary of the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

First to flare up upon the resumption of the interpellations were Minority Leader Edcel Lagman and Deputy Speaker Pablo Garcia.

Lagman did not want to continue with interpellations from Garcia anymore, citing that the latter had exceeded the limit for interpellations per congressman.

Under the rules, each congressman is allowed to interpellate for a maximum of 60 minutes, excluding the answers.

Lagman said Garcia had already interpellated him an hour and 20 minutes. It spanned at least 3 session days.

Garcia refuted this, saying Lagman's interpretation of the rules was wrong.

He acccused Lagman of being "allergic" to his interpellation. Garcia made a similar observation the day before.

On Tuesday, Lagman refused to answer questions from Garcia, because the lawmaker was talking about God—a topic that Lagman felt is irrelevant to the RH bill.

The presiding officer suspended the session momentarily to defuse the tension.

It was only a short calm because tension went up again after the session resumed.

Lagman and Garcia were no longer interpellating.

Lagman had asked co-sponsor Alagad party-list Rep. Rodante Marcoleta to defend the bill, to the dismay of Parañaque Rep. Roilo Golez, who took over from Garcia.

Golez initially insisted on facing Lagman.

Golez and Lagman raised their voices when Lagman started to read him rules of the House from 2009. Golez said that was irrelevant.

House Presiding Officer Deputy Speaker Raul Daza ruled that Lagman could not be compelled.

Majority Leader Boyet Gonzales, meanwhile, manifested that the committee sponsoring the measure was authorized to name who will defend any bill.           

The session was again momentarily suspended to defuse the tension, as the congressmen sorted out the row informally in small group discussions on the floor.

When session resumed, Golez interpellated Marcoleta. However, the debate turned comical after Marcoleta rebutted Golez with answers that drew laughter from the audience.

Golez was interpellating Marcoleta about World War 2, which the latter felt was irrelevant.

Golez later proceeded to question the numbering of the House bills on the RH bill. Golez was wondering why Lagman's bill was numbered 3 when it wasn't so numbered when it was filed.

He even cited Lagman's old press release with the bill numbered as 3, in his argument.

He said ABS-CBN News' RG Cruz was misled by the bill's sponsor with the press release.

Golez previously questioned why the House is prioritizing the RH bill over other pending bills that were filed ahead of the measure, citing the numbering of the original bill as proof.

The discussion further went into demographics, wherein Golez then accused the bill sponsor of copying provisions of the RH bill from another bill.

Golez then suspended his interpellation to give way to another interpellator, Bacolod City Rep. Anthony Golez.

Marcoleta was replaced by Deputy Majority Leader Janet Garin as sponsor on the floor in defending the bill.

Garin appeared to lose her cool when Golez cut off her answers and attempted to rebut him, and when Golez gave her a lecture on physiology and anatomy.

Garin noted Golez was not really asking any questions.

The 2 lawmakers are both medical experts.

Rep. Pedro Romualdo then manifested they continue the interpellation on Tuesday, noting that the quorum had already dropped to 22 congressmen on the floor.