“RH Bill: A Duplicate?” – Some Clarificatory Questions for the 15th Congress of the Philippines

Below are some questions for the esteemed members of the Philippines 15th Congress in connection to a news article – RH Bill Duplicates Health Programs- published by the Manila Standard Today :

• Would you kindly confirm if these existing health programs are currently and SOLELY funded by PHL’s taxpayers’ money or if these are funded through foreign aid?

• If I remember it correctly, these current health programs were initiated by various foreign aid agencies in partnership with the Philippine government in connection to MDG 2015. DOH, I think, was the designated implementing agency/service provider.If am not mistaken, AusAid, UNFA, are few of those foreign FUNDING agencies/international organizations involved. Since these programs practically exist at present in compliance with the Philippines’ commitment to MDG 2015, what are your plans then, when foreign funding for these health programs dried up after 2015?

• As stated in the article, several questions were raised in connection to the ‘specific items’ included in the budget earmarked for DOH. Do we happen to know if the reason behind that has something to do with the agreement between the funding agencies with the Philippine government? I have reasons to believe that the “items in question” i.e. contraceptives, etc., were specifically mandated by the funding agencies to be freely given to the people in connection to related MDG’s ”areas of concern”. If it happened that such was indeed the case, should there be valid reasons for the Senate to question it – if such allocation of fund is but a fulfillment of obligation by the Philippine government?

• Isn’t it true that not all municipalities are beneficiaries of such health programs you’re claiming to be duplicated by the RH bill? In which case, it isn’t the same thing as “… a National Policy on Reproductive Health…”

Hence, my problem is, how you can say that the RH Bill is a duplicate, where in fact its aims and purposes are not the same as these existing programs – in terms of duration, source of funding, coverage, etc. Or perhaps, we aren’t talking about the same bill…? It’s SB 2865, right?

I’m wondering even, if it is realistic to say that these health programs are government-initiated… but I’d rather not explore that subject further on this post.

Anyway, I’d really be happy to be proven wrong about my speculations, and for the questions I raised to be properly addressed by the Philippine Congress. They owe it to the people. If the Philippine Congress cannot prove that RH bill is indeed, a duplicate (as some of them claimed), the people of the Philippines would definitely appreciate it if they are going to #vote4RH now. Ten years of waiting for it  is long enough.

 

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• Groups to Congress: Put RH bill to a vote! (tuklasinnatin.wordpress.com)
• Aquino not doing enough for RH bill, backers say (hreplib.wordpress.com)
• What areas of the RH bill needs to be reconciled (wiki.answers.com)
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