Duterte Signs Executive Order for Full Reproductive Health Program Implementation
The President signed Executive Order No. 12, “Attaining and Sustaining Zero Unmet Need for Modern Family Planning Through the Strict Implementation of the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act, Providing Funds Therefor and for Other Purposes,” on 11 January 2017.
National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) director general Ernesto Pernia said on the same day at a Malacañan press briefing that the Executive Order will allow women of reproductive age to achieve their desired number of children rather than having more than they want or can afford and provide for adequately.
Pernia said the the government thinks differently than pro-life groups who oppose use of contraceptives. He said the law is pro-life, pro-women, and pro-economic development. “So the link between family planning or the implementation of the RPRH law is critical — the link between family planning and economic development, socio-economic development is quite intimate,” he said.
For his part, Commission on Population (POPCOM) executive director Dr. Juan Antonio Perez said the President is calling on the three major agencies: DOH, DILG and POPCOM to assist local governments in implementing the RPRH Law by mapping out and identifying women who have a need for family planning. Perez added that President Duterte wants agencies to support at least the two million women in the poorest sector for them to get family planning services and to reach at least six million women by the end of the administration.
The government targets to reduce poverty from 21.6 percent of the year 2015, to 13-14% is the target of the Duterte administration, Pernia said. ●
Brief History
A brief history on the Reproductive Health Law:
- 21 December 2012 - The Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Law Act of 2012 (Republic Act No. 10354) also known as the Reproductive Health Law, principally authored and sponsored by Representative Edcel Lagman, was signed into law by former President Benigno Aquino III after 13 years and 4 months in Congress.
- January 02, 2013 - petitioners filed a Petition for Certiorari and Prohibition, with a Prayer for a Writ of Injunction, assailing the constitutionality of RA 10354.[^1]
- 19 March 2013 - the Supreme Court issued a status quo ante order with a 10-5 vote, temporarily stopping the implementation of the law for 120 days.
- 8 April 2014 - Supreme Court spokesman Theodore Te said in a press briefing that all the justices considered the basic law constitutional “except those provisions they declared unconstitutional.”
- 17 June 2015 - the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order (TRO), prohibiting the Department of Health (DOH) from “procuring, selling, distributing, dispensing or administering, advertising and promoting the hormonal contraceptive ‘Implanon’ and ‘Implanon NXT’.” The TRO was “effective immediately and continuing until further orders of this court,” according to Second Division chair Associate Justice Antonio Carpio granting the petition of the Alliance for the Family Foundation Philippines, Inc. (ALFI).