Solon: P3B per year needed for RH bill implementation

Around P3 billion per year will be needed from the national budget to implement the provisions of the Reproductive Health (RH) bill if it is enacted into law, one of the authors of the controversial measure said on Wednesday. Minority Leader Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, one of the proponents of the bill, said that he arrived at this estimate based on his consultations with “eligible authorities" on the field of reproductive health and public funds. “We have been checking around with eligible authorities on the adequate budget on the implementation of the RH bill, and they are talking about in the vicinity of P3 billion," he said in a press briefing on Wednesday. He said the amount will cover information campaigns on Reproductive Health, as well as the procurement of “both natural and modern" forms of family planning. “That’s a small amount. That’s not a mega figure compared the mega projects of government," he said. Lagman made this statement a few hours after the House committee on appropriations approved the budget provisions of the consolidated RH bill, which mandates that initial funds for the implementation of the measure will come from funds left of the Department of Health’s P731 million fund for Family Health and Responsible Parenthood fund. The bill, a consolidated version of six separate measures, is set for plenary debates on the coming weeks after the Committee on Population and Family Relations approved its contents last month. Scholarships, training programs Zambales Rep. Milagros Magsaysay, one of Lagman’s allies in the House minority, however said it will be better if the amount will be allocated for education assistance and various livelihood programs. “I think that P3 billion will go a long if it will go tertiary education scholarships and skills training programs which will be of help to alleviate the plight of the poor," she said in the same briefing. She added that she will personally oppose the bill’s “appropriation language" once it reaches debates on the House plenary. Various pro-life groups, led by the Roman Catholic Church, have earlier expressed opposition to the measure. The Catholic Church promotes only natural family planning and is opposed to the use of artificial birth control methods such as condoms and birth-control pills, saying these could lead to promiscuity and a rise in abortion cases. However, RH advocates say natural family planning methods have not proven to be as reliable as artificial means of birth control. – VVP, GMA News