RH bill misses the nail's head

Various arguments regarding House Bill 5043 otherwise known as the Reproductive Health Bill center on whether population control will actually alleviate poverty or whether the bill is moral or immoral. But community-based health programs say the proposed law missed the nail’s head.

Over population?

According to the National Statistics Office (NSO), there are three babies born every minute, almost two thousand in an hour, and almost four-thousand every day. This year, the NSO projects the population to balloon at 92.23-million making it one of the most populous countries in Asia. On the other hand, population density is 277 per square kilometer while the gross domestic product per capita is $3,400

In an online article by Emil Jurado, a columnist in the Manila Standard Today, he cited fifty other countries which have a much lower density whose per capita is also much lower. There are also thirty-six countries which are more densely populated, yet their GDP per capital is also much higher. He argued that all these simply mean that the few are not at all richer, and the many are not always poorer.

If over population is not the root cause of poverty in a country like the Philippines, what then is the source of the problem?

Wrong priorities

Recently, the P1.414-trillion 2009 national budget was approved by Malacañang. Simply put, the government has allotted each of the more than 90-million Filipinos with a P15,331 budget for year 2009 or a meager P42 per day. Instead of beefing up funds for social services, the government allotted P252-billion for debt service. Originally, the amount for debt servicing was cut by Congress from P 252 billion to P 202 billion, but Mrs. Arroyo’s veto restored the original amount for debt servicing. The Department of National Defense (DND) on the other hand will receive P56.5-billion, as funding for highly questionable wars and military spending. In contrast, government agencies who are expected to provide basic social services like the Department of Health (DoH) received a measly P27.9-billion. Meanwhile, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) was allotted P10.5-billion (177% increase from last year’s allocation of P4.8-billion). However, bulk of the budget will be given away to dole-out programs such as donations and subsidies.

Beyond numbers

In a statement, Council for Health and Development (CHD) expressed that the issue of poverty should be viewed beyond the issue of an oversized population. Although the Reproductive Health Bill is “anchored on the rationale that sustainable human development is better assured with a manageable population of healthy, educated, and productive citizens,” CHD argued that managing the population through population control is not an assurance of genuine human or people’s development. They further stated that the worsening poverty is not caused by over population but by farmers’ problems of landlessness, workers’ lack of jobs and low wages, and government policies that favor big business interests over people’s welfare.

Accessible health care system

Reproductive health must be viewed and not separated from the overall context of people’s health. As the economy worsens, the state of the public health system also deteriorates. And with it, women’s health, especially those belonging to the marginalized sectors become all the more at stake. Year in and year out, the government continues to fail in its efforts to address people’s health problems. Consequently, many women’s and children’s lives are endangered. Moreover, the government’s hell-bent efforts to push for the privatization of public health facilities have made matters worse (e.g. collection of out-of-pocket fees in public hospitals) for poor women’s access to a comprehensive health care including reproductive health.

The debate on reproductive health vis a vis population can go on and on. But at the end of the day, it is the government’s responsibility to ensure accessible health services including reproductive health services. In particular, women should be provided with necessary information regarding reproductive health including all types of family planning methods to guide them in their decisions.#

please click here for the story in pdf.