Sen. Cayetano: RH Bill empowers local governments in better health care delivery

MANILA, Philippines (Aug 28, 2011) - Batting for the passage of the Reproductive Health (RH) bill,  Sen. Pia Cayetano said that the measure if enacted into law shall ensure that women and children are provided better health care in areas that it is not readily available.

Cayetano who is the principal proponent of the Senate version of the RH bill said a law on RH shall put local governments under obligation to provide reproductive health services to their constituents. Mothers who do not have the money to avail of modern family planning methods or buy contraceptives shall be the main beneficiaries.

She lamented that several local health centers do not have the necessary RH services. She cited the City of Manila, which does not allow the use and distribution of contraceptives.

Cayetano said that a lot of women of child-bearing age do not have the means to buy contraceptives such as the pill on a regular basis.

“Let me put it on record that the pill is not an effective birth control method because it only works when you use it regularly,” she said.

Cayetano and her co-sponsor Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago had earlier engaged Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III in heated debates over the RH bill.

Sotto, a vocal critic of the measure, said the RH bill is unnecessary because its provisions are already being implemented by the Department of Health.

But Cayetano maintained that reproductive health services save lives and should be provided by the State to all Filipino women.

She added that poor women need not spend for transportation to get to a DOH hospital or health center just to avail of these services.

Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. also threw his support behind the RH bill as he echoed the arguments raised by Cayetano on the role of the LGUs in providing maternal health services to women.

“If there is a mandate from the national government that the LGU can ask for assistance under the auspices of this proposed law, then I guarantee that every local government official will try everything possible, do everything they can to help,” he said.

Marcos said the RH bill is important to ensure that all Filipinos are informed on the ways to prevent deaths due to complications from pregnancy and other reproductive health issues. (From philstar.com)