JULIUS BREVA
Contributing editor
The use of artificial contraceptives like pills and condoms is the most difficult program intervention to sell to LGUs under the Provincial Investment Plan for Health (PIPH).
Provincial Health Officer Corazon Silla-Ariosa said this, as she noted that of the eleven towns in the first district, only Aurora allotted an amount to buy contraceptives under the Commodity Self Reliance (CSR) Program of PIPH.
Ariosa led a workshop with municipal health and budget officers to program the initial activities of PIPH July 14-15 at the Hotel Guillermo.
PIPH is the grand health plan of the provincial government from 2008 to 2015 submitted for funding to a consortium of donor agencies that include the World Bank, European Commission, among others.
With P2 million start-up funds from the Department of Health, the initial activities of the PIPH are mostly about lobbying for LGU’s counterpart on the different PIPH programs, conduct of trainings and info drives, and organizing volunteers.
Health Pro Area Manager Nenita Bonsubre said that if the LGUs would not chip in their counterpart fund in the CSR, the implementation of the P7-billion-worth PIPH might be stalled.
United States Assistance for International development (USAID) Policy Specialist Noemi Bautista said that only by curbing population growth especially among the vulnerable sectors can the PIPH become successful and sustainable.
No amount of health program is enough if the government would not curb the rapid population growth of the vulnerable sectors that always need health services, she added
Meanwhile, Ozamiz Bishop Jesus Dosado recently proposed to fellow bishops not to give Holy Communion to politicians who support the Reproductive Health Bill.
Caloocan Bishop Deogracias Yñiguez also threatened to campaign against politicians who support the bill in the next elections.
The bill promotes the informed choice of a woman whether to use contraceptives or natural method in controlling birth.
Senator Panfilo Lacson said that the view of the Catholic bishops on the bill is very “parochial”, if not “downright stupidity”.
Last April 21-25, the USAID also conducted a planning workshop with municipal health and budget officers for the CSR, but the workshop has yet to produce results in terms of contraceptives procurement of the LGUs.
Ariosa said that it is difficult to promote contraceptives thru trainings and info drives when the people do not have access to them.
Under the CSR program, PIPH promotes pills, condoms and injectables, along with natural family method such as withdrawal and rhythm method, in order to curb the rapid population growth.
The other PIPH programs address the problems on tuberculosis, AIDS, maternal health, child health, and avian influenza.
CSR was used to be called Contraceptives Self Reliance meant for the procurement of contraceptives, as a continuity plan in 2006 for the population control program of the USAID that has since phased down in supplying free contraceptives in the Philippines from the United States.
But CSR met opposition from the Catholic Church. In turn, many LGUs did not set aside funds for the CSR in 2006 and 2007 to avoid the ire of the Church.