fter three decades
of trying, extremist conservative Catholic fanatics have finally succeeded in
hijacking the Philippine Population Program and at last have an opportunity to
dismantle it once and for all. In the early 80s, they almost did it when one of
their own took over as director general of the National Economic Development
Authority (NEDA). Fortunately because of pressure from population control
advocates, responsibility for the program was transferred to the Ministry of
Social Welfare and Development (now DSWD) whose head was sympathetic to
population and development concepts. After the EDSA revolution, the program was
again endangered under an antagonistic head of DSWD but was once more saved when
a supportive Secretary of Health rescued it by taking control of all national
family planning activities.
Having played a key role in the illegal removal of President
Joseph Estrada in 2001, the Christian version of the Taliban, just like the
other predators loosed by EDSA 2 on Philippine Society, felt entitled to some
spoils. Among the spoils they demanded from the un-mandated government was the
Philippine Population Program.
The take-over of the heart of population activities was
sneaky and deceptive but very systematic. It began with a ban on government
procurement of contraceptive supplies even as the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID) was in the process of discontinuing its
program of supplying the government with condoms, IUDs, and pills. One hundred
million pesos earlier programmed by the Estrada administration to take over
support of family planning was diverted to finance a contract purportedly for
development of natural family planning by a conservative Catholic group –
Couples for Christ – who at that time controlled a foundation called "Gawad
Kalinga". Today the ban on procurement remains in force and there is no evidence
that family planning was strengthened by this "natural" family planning effort.
Meanwhile, seeing abortionists behind any family planning and
population management effort, the Christian Taliban targeted specific
initiatives. An early casualty was the program for emergency contraception. The
program had been intended to help reduce the number of Filipino women who
resorted to illegal unsafe abortions because of unplanned pregnancies. In 2001,
this number was estimated at 300,000. The present estimate is nearly half a
million.
Having cut off the supply of contraceptives, the Macapagal-Arroyo
administration turned to restricting the capability of any national office to
influence local governments to support family planning and population
management. The most obvious target was the heart of the Philippine Population
Program – the Population Commission then an attached agency of NEDA.
Under the influence of his own staff as well as the donor
community, the Macapagal-Arroyo-appointed NEDA head had been making some
unwanted statements about the dire effects of excessive population growth rates.
The obvious first move then was to transfer the agency to a more malleable
Department of Health. The next move was to change the composition of the
Commission by appointing anti-poor conservatives to "balance" its progressive
leanings. This was done by appointing as commissioners one member of the Opus
Dei and a member of the Couples for Christ.
With both the policy and implementation arms of the
population program well under their control, the conditions are now set for the
Catholic extremists to begin dismantling the national program altogether.
Invoking the Local Government Code, Malacañang has declared that it is up to
each individual local government executive to determine whether and how strongly
to support family planning. As far as central government is concerned, its
agencies are authorized to support only the "natural" family planning method
favored by the Catholic Church.
The result, in terms of what is happening on the ground to
family planning, especially for poor families, was predictable and is what the
extremists truly intended. In the few provinces that had both the resources and
political will to support the program, family planning is doing well. In the
many provinces or cities that were poor, even where the local executives were
inclined to support family planning, the program has floundered for lack of
resources. In places where local government heads were "talibanically" inclined,
family planning services have disappeared, contraceptive rates are down,
abortion rates are going up, and effects of poverty have been amplified. The
City of Manila is the principal example of this latter case.
***
The "free-market" freaks of the pharmaceutical industry are
at it again. The multinational companies, comprising the membership of the
Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association of the Philippines (PHAP), have
succeeded in temporarily derailing a proposed bill that would have amended the
Philippine Patent Law to the advantage of local drug firms.
Despite the fact that they were severely admonished by an irate member of
congress for interfering with the legislative process, pharma giants like the
infamous Pfizer are happy with each little victory these days. In the eyes of
many, these companies are wrong even when they try to do the right thing. In the
United States, one of them (Merck) was advised to stop lobbying for mandatory
immunization against the human papilloma virus (HPV) that causes cancer of the
cervix because their efforts were deemed counter productive to establishing what
should be a good public health program.
