2007/08/16

Fund for contraceptives remains unspent while LGUs waits for guidelines

The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ)

WHAT happens when a government agency has P180 million for family planning supplies but is barred from buying contraceptives?

Simple. Eight months pass and the guidelines for the release of the money are still being hammered out. The only thing that is clear so far: P30 million or 16.6 percent of the money has been set aside “for regular operations” of the National Center for Disease Prevention and Control (NCDPC) and the Centers for Health Development (CHD), which will draft the guidelines and administer the fund.

“That is too much,” says an exasperated Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman. Lagman and Alagad party-list representative Rodante Marcoleta worked for the P180 million-budget insertion in the General Appropriations Act last year. In a letter to Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, Lagman expressed concern that the “long delay in the approval and issuance of the guidelines immobilizes precious funds for reproductive health.”

“We’re now on the second half of the third quarter, the local government units are raring to avail of the money, but there are no guidelines yet,” he says.

If the fund is not used by the end of the year, the money will be returned to the National Treasury.

Under the guidelines now being worked out by the Department of Health, local government units will have to meet several criteria in getting a share of the fund. Among them is assigning regional NCDPCs and CHDs to help mayors in getting the fund. Clusters of LGUs will be awarded funds based on their ability to “meet the minimum standards on local availability and access to natural family planning,” and “the extent that LGUs have already borne the burden of providing family planning services for free to poor clients.”

Lagman protested the imposition of natural family planning as a condition in providing funds for artificial contraceptives. He said this condition was not part of their intention when the budget insertion was made. He reminded Duque that the congressional allocation is for artificial family planning. “Therefore its access by LGUs should not be made dependent on any program relating to NFP in the same manner that access to NFP must not depend on the beneficiary’s existing programs on artificial family planning,” Lagman said.

The second condition also discriminates against cash-strapped local government units whose mayors would have wanted to provide for the artificial contraceptive requirements of their constituents, but had no funding source.The supply of free contraceptives will dry up next year. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the country’s contraceptive provider since 1969, will completely pull out in 2008. (see latest PCIJ report).

Nongovernmental organizations that focus on reproductive health say the Arroyo government has no clear program in place to pick up the slack. It is estimated that government needs at least $2 million annually to meet the country’s family planning supply requirements. But since she took over, Arroyo asked mayors and governors to handle the contraceptive requirements of their constituents, a deviation from the nationally-mandated and funded programs by previous presidents from the time of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos.

“We’ve been warned about this as early as 1998. We have had almost 10 years to prepare,” fumes Dr. Alberto Romualdez, former health secretary and now vice president of The Forum on Family Planning and Development (The Forum). He adds that the guidelines now being drafted by the DOH for the use of the funds for contraceptives is “similar to an obstacle course.”

“We ask the current government to allocate the budget for its intended beneficiaries. We all know that unless we find solutions to the problem of a ballooning populace, all our efforts to end poverty will be all put to waste,” said Benjamin de Leon, president of The Forum.

Already, various NGOs and even the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) are saying that the Arroyo government will not meet its 2015 target of reducing child mortality, improving maternal health and ensuring that all children have primary education under their belt under the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. In reviewing the midterm performance of the Arroyo administration under the MDGs, these two areas are seen as among the most neglected, according to various NGOs.

“We need political commitment to the MDGs, not political commitment to superhighways and airports,” said Professor Leonor Magtolis-Briones, head of Social Watch Philippines. She was referring to the plans outlined by Arroyo in her recent State of the Nation Address (SONA), where her 13-page speech devoted eight pages to infrastructure projects, mostly roads and airports, for her supporters.

About Philippines  
About Social Watch in Philippines  
Publications by Social Watch Focal Point in Philippines 
See news about Philippines  

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Social Watch, which is mentioned in the report, distributes this material without profit for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.