DOH exec: RH bill not cure-all but puts all 'on same boat'

TAGAYTAY, Philippines — The highly-debated Reproductive Health Bill is not a panacea for poverty or sexually-transmitted diseases but at least it will put everyone on a "level playing field," a government health official said. Assistant Secretary Eric Tayag of the Department of Health (DOH) said there have been a few misconceptions on what the RH Bill can really offer in terms of solving crucial problems in the Philippines. "The RH Bill has been promoted to be the solution for many [problems] such as poverty, overpopulation, maternal deaths among others. But it cannot stand alone for these goals," said Tayag during a two-day seminar on reducing stigma on HIV-AIDS. Staunch pro-RH Bill advocates – especially its authors Rep. Edcel Lagman and Rep. Jannette Garin — have repeatedly claimed that the measure could greatly ease the country's ballooning population and eventually poverty. Moreover, they said the measure is also expected to help control the size of families by educating people and the youth about sex and helping them plan their pregnancies. The bill, which is stirring heated debates at the House plenary, seeks to put the government at the forefront of providing reproductive health assistance to Filipinos, using public funds to purchase contraceptives, deploy more midwives, and teach sex education in elementary among others. So-called pro-life advocates, led mostly by Catholic church officials, have opposed the measure, saying provisions in the bill contradicted some teachings in the Bible and were not sure remedies for social ills such as poverty. Tayag, however, admitted that "the RH Bill will not be [a] significant [factor] in reducing poverty" even as he said the DOH will not even depend on the measure to curb the growing HIV-AIDS cases in the Philippines – now over 6,000 recorded cases. [See related: HIV-AIDS cases in PHL to spike five-fold before Aquino's term ends — DOH] The health official, however, said the controversial measure will at least standardize the methods local governments use in dealing with reproductive health problems. "The bill puts everyone on the same boat," Tayag said. Without a measure that is national in scope such as the RH bill, Tayag said the reproductive health care systems being implemented throughout the country would "simply depend on local ordinances and the whims of the LGUs." He expressed fears there might be families who would suffer in places where their local governments do not put reproductive health as a priority in their system of governance. Recently, officials in posh Ayala Alabang village in Muntinlupa in southern Metro Manila stirred some debates stemming from a controversial local ordinance regulating the sales of condoms in the area. Under the local measure, contraceptives would only be sold to people of legal age and with accompanying prescription from a physician. After being met with strong opposition from RH Bill advocates, the ordinance has since been revised. — LBG, GMA News