WHILE access to modern contraceptives increased to a record high in a pandemic year, the Commission on Population and Development (Popcom) is not optimistic that this success can be sustained due to the Mandanas ruling.
The Popcom said access to family planning methods posted a 4-percent increase in 2020 despite difficulties experienced by local health workers to provide access due to lockdowns.
Popcom told the BusinessMirror this is the first time that 8.085 men and women were able to access modern family planning methods. In 2019, some 7.8 million men and women in the Philippines had access to modern contraceptives.
“Sustainability will be a major issue with the implementation of the Mandanas-Garcia ruling which has affected Popcom funding for FP (Family Planning) in the last two years,” Undersecretary for Population and Development Juan Antonio A. Perez III told BusinessMirror on Sunday. “Popocom’s budget for FP has been reduced by at least 16 million for 2022.”
Perez told this newspaper that apart from Popcom, the Department of Health (DOH) also needs to sustain their procurement given that more women are now using FPs.
He noted that DOH is tasked to procure at least P1 billion worth of FPs annually while Popcom is in charge of making sure local government unit supplies are maintained, especially during the pandemic.
“Our proposal is for national government (Popcom or DOH) to continue procurement of FP commodities and support the supply chain to all LGUs as a retained function of national government agencies like Popcom, including coordination and provision of technical assistance to LGUs,” Perez explained.
He said under this arrangement, LGUs will support demand generation and service delivery of family planning services.
Popcom and DOH will also continue to provide itinerant teams for the provision of permanent methods like Bilateral Tubal Ligation and No Scalpel Vasectomy as their few resources for these all LGU levels.
Meanwhile, in terms of the record increase in the use of family planning methods in 2020, Perez attributed this to the work of LGUs, particularly health and social workers and volunteers.
“It was also shown in a survey in November 2020 that the second major issue was unplanned pregnancy which showed that people wanted to avail of FP services during the pandemic which led to a higher number of women using FP,” Perez said.
Based on the data provided by Popcom to BusinessMirror, modern family planning users in the Philippines increased significantly between 2000 and 2020.
In 2000, there were only 3.7 million men and women who had access to modern contraceptives. This represented a 118.53 percent increase in 2020 with over 8 million Filipinos accessing FPs.
Popcom attributed the growth in the access and use of FPs in the Philippines in recent years to Executive Order 12 on Zero Unmet Need for FP passed in 2017 and Joint Memorandum Circular 2019-01 on the intensified implementation of the National Program on Family Planning.
The agency also credited the various programs of the DOH and Popcom last year to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 on the supply and distribution of FPs as well as EO 141 on addressing teenage pregnancy as a national priority released last month.
In a statement, Popcom and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)-Philippines recently commemorated World Population Day 2021, with “Dynamic Demographics: Prioritizing sexual and reproductive health and rights of people” as the theme.
During the online event, the UNFPA revealed a recent study stating that millions of women continue to experience restrictions in accessing family planning services due to the imposition of local community lockdowns.
The condition could lead to an increase in the number of unplanned pregnancies, specifically within the marginalized sector of the Philippine society. In addition, the situation may cause an upsurge in the number of gender-based violence cases.
Popcom said reproductive health and family planning services were feared to be severely impaired in certain urban areas, which raised the red flag on their accompanying consequences.
These include the possible rise in the incidences of unplanned pregnancies particularly among adolescents, increasing maternal mortalities and gender-based violence.
The local commemoration of World Population Day 2021 on July 13 called for action and support from the Philippine government and all duty bearers.
It also served as a venue to commend the innovative strategies of Philippine government protecting the SRHR of women and girls in the midst of the pandemic, especially on the call of Popcom for uninterrupted services for family planning despite the community quarantines.