HEALTH Secretary Francisco Duque III on Thursday acknowledged the rights of the pro-life groups to file another legal injunction after the Food and Drug Administration declared as non-abortifacients 51 contraceptives, including the implants Implanon and Implanon NXT.
“That’s well within their rights. If they want to file another injunction case, a petition for injunction, it’s really up to them,” Duque told a media briefing.
He said the legal recourse was there for all parties, whether from the group of the oppositors or from the proponents.
As this developed, Dr. Juan Antonio Perez III, executive director of the Commission on Population, said an estimated 250,000 contraceptive subdermal implants stored at warehouses around Metro Manila would be distributed to Department of Health regional offices and civil society organizations before they expire in 2018 and 2019.
Perez said the implants, particularly Implanon and Implanon NXT, and other recertified contraceptives, would arrive at health centers within the next two weeks for possible use before they expire in September 2018 and March 2019.
He said the Implants would be good for three years and the expiration date was the date when it should have been inserted already.
Some batches will expire in September 2018, some in March 2019.
Duque said about 1,000 implants would be inserted every day within the next 10 months as the DoH replenished its supply of reproductive items after their Certificates of Product Registration expired during the two-year period covered by temporary restraining order recently lifted by the Supreme Court.
The High Court released the TRO following the petition filed by the Alliance for the Family Foundation Philippines Inc. in 2015, requesting the suspension of the procurement and distribution of the contraceptives—particularly Implanon and Implanon NXT—pending their recertification as non-abortifacients.
The FDA said the TRO mandated them against approving new or pending applications for Certificates of Product Registration within the two-year period of the Supreme Court’s temporary restraining order.
FDA Dir. Gen. Nela Charade Puno said the TRO barred them from the Food and Drug granting new or pending applications for recertification or CPRs.
Duque and Perez said the lifting of the TRO meant the DOH could also replenish their nearly empty stocks of contraceptives that were also affected by the order.
Due to the TRO, the DoH could not purchase or distribute these contraceptives, including injectables and Progestin-only pills, while the TRO was still in effect.
Current supplies of injectables will only hold out for six months while it will take them a year to replenish POP as they have completely run out.
The health chief said he would also meet with Senator Vicente Sotto III to clarify their positions on the full implementation of the RPRH Act.
Sotto is one of the lawmakers who slashed P1 billion from the budget of the DOH for “ Modern and Natural Family Planning Supplies.”
He failed to block the passing of the RPRH Law in its current form.
“We respect the opinion of Senator Sotto. But there is a law which the executive branch is mandated to execute… we can only make sure (sic) the good senator that we will reasonably execute or implement the provisions of RH Law,” said Duque.
“I will also get in touch with him so that our communications are open, so that we understand exactly our respective positions. And who knows, at the end of the day, there might [be] complementation of our positions. So we may not want to discount that possibility,” added Duque.
Perez said the National Economic and Development Authority projects a decrease from 21 percent to 14 percent in poverty rates with the full implementation of the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012 or Republic Act No. 10354.
The health department will propose a budget of P4.3 billion for the RPRH Law in 2018; P342 million will be allotted to family planning supplies alone.