reasons, and there are various accounts of the absence of available/free
transportation from one health facility to another. Inadequate facilities were also
cited particularly the sharing of beds in Manila, Tacloban and in Zamboanga City.
RH information and Reception of RH Goods and Services
Regarding Public Reception of RH Goods and Services, people’s experiences in all
areas pointed to its improvable status. While POP Com and the health workers from
the Barangay and the Local Government Units provide RH information on a daily
basis, including house to house visits by volunteer barangay health workers, accounts
on lack of information on RH services continue. There is recognition that information
dissemination should include men in the RH agenda and a rethinking of RH as not the
sole concern of women. It has been noted that a recurring experience among areas is
the low participation of men in the RH agenda, whether in terms of policies, programs
and processes or in the context of making decisions between partners. In Mindanao,
concerns have been raised on the failure to engage indigenous and religious leaders
in the RH agenda and to engage them in information dissemination on RH. Sexuality
and RH education have also been raised as lacking and inconsistent in many areas,
pointing to the need for strengthened RH and Sexuality education.
On The Denial and/or Barriers in Accessing RH
In addition to policies which served as barriers to the full implementation of the RH
law, the Commission’s fact finding and public hearing also documented other barriers
and denial of access to RH services and information.
One of the barriers identified throughout the cluster areas is the lack of information
on RH and/or misinformation due to religion or culture which affect women and
men’s willingness to access RH services. Despite claims by government health
workers and service providers on information dissemination being conducted,
interviews continue to reveal that some women are unaware of the available services
and commodities specially those living in geographically inaccessible and
disadvantaged areas. In some cases, while women are generally aware of the available
RH services, they are unwilling to avail of services due to religious beliefs or cultural
practices. While a ‘fatwa’ has been issued on the acceptability of RH in Islam, not all
Moro women are aware of the same. For IPs, while elders claim that it is not against
the culture of IP’s, some women refuse to avail of RH services without consulting with
elder or without consent and agreement of their husbands. These led to
recommendations on the need to improve information dissemination not only on the
available RH goods and services, but also to include men, traditional and religious
leaders in the RH agenda. In the case of Sorsogon City, the Commission found that the
misinformation being undertaken by the City through sponsored radio programs and
‘Pro-Life’ conventions were found to have affected women’s willingness to avail of RH
services and goods. The misinformation included claims that artificial contraceptives
cause cancer and associating contraceptive use with abortion. Active religious
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