THE Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Law will be fully implemented under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte and its budget will be increased to more than P2 billion, Economic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said Thursday.
Pernia, who also serves as the National Economic and Development Authority director-general, said that they will even consider borrowing to fund the provisions of the RPRH Law.
“I think in the past about P2 billion has been allocated in the budget, but we probably need more,” Pernia said during the sidelines of a press conference on Demographic Dividend by the United Nations Population Fund.
“President Duterte himself is an advocate of family planning, I’m sure he will be willing to increase that budget to make sure access to family planning services will be available to all those who want the services,” he added.
The proposed budget for the RPRH Law was P3.2 billion this year, but this was later reduced by P1 billion.
“I think donor agencies are also willing to help in this regard because they see it as a problem, too,” he said.
Pernia said the implementation of RPRH Law will eventually aid in the reduction of poverty, according to simulations he has run.
These show that if families are able to achieve the desired family size of three children, the poverty rate would drop from 26 percent to 23 percent. If the poorest 40 percent of families achieve the desired family size, the poverty rate would drop even further to 20 percent, he added.
“This is just pure demographic effect,” Pernia said.
At the same time, Pernia said there is no official “three-child policy.”
“The three-child policy is a misunderstanding. The President himself has already said that that was his suggestion and that’s because he has three children. He said that as a suggestion, not as a policy,” Pernia said.
“We cannot be coercive,” Pernia added. “The RPRH law is essentially voluntary, and involves a policy of informed choice on which specific contraceptive to use or how many children to have.”
To reach the economy’s full potential, Pernia said he has suggested to the President that the three branches of government hold “friendly meetings.”
“I will suggest to the President…and to my colleagues in the Cabinet that we should also include the judiciary in that meeting,” Pernia said, referring to the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council set for Monday.
He said while the judiciary might not join the formal session, an informal meeting would help make sure that the different branches of government are not operating at cross purposes.
Pernia’s statements on the RPRH Law came in the wake of a Supreme Court decision to extend the temporary restraining order issued to suspend the distribution and selling of contraceptive implants that can prevent pregnancies for up to three years.
“This is the problem with our judiciary, they take their sweet time. They don’t realize how serious it is to have a TRO like this because everyone knows by now, 11 woman die of pregnancy and birth-related causes. And this could have been prevented if the TRO is not in effect,” Pernia said.
“I heard there’s already a schedule to lift it sometime. I don’t know why we have to wait for one year. In the first place, I don’t see why the SC has to heed, has to listen to these unreasonable, silly petitions coming from the noisy minority,” he added.
Pernia also said there are many other instances in which courts prevent the government from moving forward, in terms of infrastructure projects.
“I don’t know why they have to give [importance] to these nonsensical, many of them, really nonsensical theories,” Pernia said.
He said he has already consulted lawyers about putting together a “Ledac-type meeting” and they said there shouldn’t be a problem.
Also on Thursday, Health Secretary Paulyn Jean Rosse-Ubial said the Duterte administration would do more to address mental health issues, which she said have been neglected.
While the government would continue its programs on infectious and non-communicable diseases, it would expand mental health services through the Hopeline Project to provide phone-based counseling services 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to anyone who suffers from depression.
“This project was already in the pipeline with the change in the administration,” said Ubial, who rose from the ranks, serving 13 secretaries at the DoH. With Macon Ramos-Araneta
