May kulong ka sa RH bill

CROSSINGS
Butch Junia
5/30-6/5/2011



If you think the Reproductive Health or RH Bill is only about the well-being of mothers, women and children, think again.

It’s also about going to jail for six months, paying fines of up to P50,000.00, even losing your government job.

After writing last week on HB 4244, The Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health and Population and Development Act of 2011, I got unexpected queries from friends who were not too clear on the objectives of the RH bill.

Why the Fuss?
In particular, Mang Naro Lualhati, our institutional memory on Meralco overcharges, called to ask why we were making such a big fuss on reproductive health. Of course, he knew why, but that was his way of punctuating his point on RH: if our objective in RH is to promote free choice, he said, we already have free choice today.

Besides, since President Aquino already publicly declared that he is for free choice, Mang Naro insisted, all he has to do is withdraw support for the bill and let it whither in the vine, in effect promoting the freedom of choice we already enjoy.

Since I will not presume to know this President’s thinking, I could only go as far as to promise to bring it up in Crossings.

Basic Human Rights
Under the bill’s declaration of policy, “the State recognizes and guarantees the exercise of the universal basic human right to reproductive health by all persons… consistent with the… demands of responsible parenthood.” There will be no quarrel on that policy, for who will argue against these basic human rights.

Sec. 4, definition of terms, says: “Reproductive health refers to the state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity in all matters relating to the reproductive system and to its functions and processes.” The bill defines reproductive health in so many ways but has no definition of the “system.” I am sure there will not be any big debate on what that system is, though I cannot say the same on how it is used.

Reproductive health care, under the same definition of terms, “refers to the access to a full range of methods, facilities, services and supplies that contribute to reproductive health and well-being by preventing and solving reproductive health-related problems.”

The latter portion of the definition is pregnant with dire implications – what are the reproductive health-related problems that are to be prevented and solved, and how.

That definition goes further: “It also includes sexual health, the purpose of which is the enhancement of life and personal relations.” Listed among the elements of reproductive health are: “c) proscription and management of abortion complications, g) education and counseling on sexuality and reproductive health, j) prevention and treatment of infertility and sexual dysfunction.” Have we reached that point where we must legislate the management of sexual dysfunction? Do we not have enough legislation to protect those who need medical attention and to penalize those who practice abortion?

Modern Methods
Isipin ho ninyo, may kulong kayo sa RH Bill.You violate this law, you go to jail from one to six months and/or pay a fine of P10,000 to P50,000.

Let us go through the RH Bill in sequence, and see what it holds for us.

Sec. 10, Family Planning Supplies as Essential Medicines. “Products and supplies for modern family planning methods shall be included in the regular purchase of essential medicine and supplies of all national and local hospitals and other government health units.”

“Modern Methods of Family Planning,” according to the bill, “refer to safe, effective and legal methods, whether the natural, or the artificial that are registered with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the DOH, to prevent pregnancy.” (Emphasis mine.)

Limited Resources
I have a young daughter, Tinie, who recently served in a government hospital, and on a couple of occasions, I did some buying for her at the medical stores in Bambang, for her supply of syringes, specimen bottles, plaster, even cotton buds and swabs, because the hospital did not have enough for the patients who would have to buy these supplies elsewhere.

With many unable to provide for themselves, Tinie and her batchmates always had to have a kind of a “loot bag” from where to draw the basic supplies.

Now, this law mandates the hospital to realign its supplies budget, and there is a penal provision for any violation of that mandate.

Guiding principles of RH bill, Sec. 3, (l) says: “The limited resources of the country cannot be suffered to be spread so thinly to service a burgeoning multitude making allocations grossly inadequate and effectively meaningless.”

We ask the RH sponsors and lobbyists: Where is the adequacy, meaning and effectiveness of the allocation you envision in the RH Bill, where medical supplies basic to the living will be sacrificed for modern methods of family planning?

PhilHealth Coverage
It is timely to note that under Sec. 25, Implementing Mechanisms, sub-sec (g), the DOH and the Local Health Units as lead agencies for the implementation of RH Bill will “...facilitate the involvement and participation of NGO’s and the private sectorin reproductive health care service delivery and in the production, distribution and delivery of quality reproductive health and family planning supplies and commodities to make them accessible and affordable to ordinary citizens.”

Lest we forget, Sec. 7, Access to Family Planning, guarantees full coverage by PhilHealth, both at the pregnancy-related and family planning levels, so cost should not be a problem. I just wonder, though, if the rest of the PhilHealth members will agree to this wanton use of the contributory PhilHealth fund, because I don’t.

Also, I googled the Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development Foundation, Inc., the one headed by Mr. Ramon San Pascual, and in their “Activities for the Month of May”, they have this for May 26-27: “DOH Training on Political Mapping, Stakeholders Analyses and Position Paper Writing.”

Is the DOH training Mr. San Pascual and his colleagues in political mapping? DOH has its hands full with the country’s health needs, why should it use its precious time and resources training these Philippine legislators? Incidentally, are they a committee of the legislators we voted to our Congress?

‘Pork’ Somewhere
Are DOH and Mr. San Pascual way ahead of the RH Bill, already implementing and facilitating the involvement of this NGO in the delivery of health care services. I hope they have not gone yet into the production components.

Sec. 15, Mobile Health Care Service, provides: “Each Congressional District may be provided with at least one (1) Mobile Health Care Service (MHCS) in the form of a van or other means of transportation appropriate to… deliver health care supplies and services to constituents… The purchase of the MHCS may be funded from the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) …"

So, there you are. Pork had to be lurking somewhere out there. Looking at the bright side, though, this is better than a basketball court or a farm-to-pocket road.

Next issue, the prohibited acts and the McCarthyist mayhem it threatens to bring about. RH Bill says: “The following acts are prohibited: (e) Any person who maliciously engages in disinformation about the intent or provisions of this Act.” (RH Bill) Critics and objectors be warned. You could fall prey to a Lagman Hunt.

(Email crsng_47@hotmail.com)