P2B for reproductive health remains untapped

MANILA, Philippines — Close to P2 billion allocated for last year’s reproductive health programs in the country remained untapped, a health official said Wednesday.

Of the P2-billion allocated by Congress for the program in 2008, only P180 million has so far been released to local communities for commodities and trainings, said Dr. Yolanda Oliveros, director of the National Center for Disease Prevention Control of the Department of Health.

Except for Davao Del Norte and Pampanga, all local government units received funds from the P180 million, she said.

Less than 10 percent of the amount has been released because of the set procedure, she said.

Based on the criteria set by the DoH, such as the number of poor women of reproductive age in each municipality, local government units need to sign a memorandum of agreement with the department to get the fund.

”We have protocols to follow and along that line dun nagkakaroon ng mga delays,” she said in an interview.

Akbayan Representative Risa Hontiveros said the delay in the release of funds for reproductive health deprives women and families adequate access to relevant information and quality reproductive health care services and supplies.

She said Malacanang and the DoH should see to it that funds are released on time.

Moreover, the P180 million was spent for “administrative cost” and not for the actual implementation of the program, said Iloilo Representative Janet Garin, another advocate of reproductive health.

”They used that for administrative cost, for example, seminars of the DoH staff or of local government personnel but we don’t really know if it’s reproductive health they would implement,” she said in a phone interview.

Although Health Secretary Francisco Duque III believes in the program, Garin said, she is not sure if he has the political will to implement it.

To address the problem, the Iloilo congresswoman also proposed that instead of giving all the funds to the local government units, the DoH can tie up with reputable non-government organizations that can implement reproductive health.

For a coordinated action on the issue, Congress needs to pass the reproductive health bill, she said.

Right now, each local government unit adopts and implements its own policy.

Advocates of reproductive health gathered on Wednesday in Club Filipino for a forum on “Reproductive Health: A Priority Agenda in 2010.”

Nacionalista Party spokesman Gilbert Remulla said that if the party’s candidate for president, Senator Manuel Villar, is elected in May 2010, reproductive health proponents would have an “ally” in Malacanang.

But when asked for details, he said his party is still formulating its agenda on population management.

Former congressman Nereus Acosta, a member of the Liberal Party and who has expressed intention to run for senator next year, said it was high time to have a national policy on reproductive health.

Aurora province Governor Bellaflor Angara-Castillo said that in the absence of a law, local governments should take the initiative to formulate the solution to the growing population in their localities.

Angara-Castillo said that because of the provincial reproductive health code she implemented in her province, its population growth dropped from 2.39 percent to 1.07 percent.

Dr. Suneeta Mukherjee, country representative of the United Nations Population Fund, said having a reproductive health policy in place would reduce maternal deaths in the country. She said that recent statistics reveal that 11 mothers die in the Philippines every day due to pregnancy and childbirth complications.

She said the population growth impacts on everything—health, food, energy supplies, housing, and environment.

”It’s a question of mathematics,” Mukherjee added, citing that P100 would be better divided among two or three children than among eight kids.–Lira Dalangin-Fernandez, INQUIRER.net