measures to mitigate the impact of the “Pro-Life Ordinance” by deploying nurses and
midwives and by ensuring availability of artificial contraceptives through the Nurse
Deployment Program (NDP) and partner NGOs. However, such measures are
temporary as the NDPs are under contract, not integral to the LGUs, and they are
required to serve several barangays at a time. The delivery of RH services by the NDPs
are likewise constrained by the Mayor’s outright prohibition and they expressly
discouraged/prevented from making use of LGU facilities such as Barangay Health
Center and Rural Health Units in dispensing family planning commodities. The
Commission has documented several accounts of women from far flung barangays
and those who cannot afford to spend for transportation to the city proper whose RH
needs remain unmet as direct effects of the Mayor’s “Pro-Life” Executive Order.
Availability, Accessibility, Sufficiency and Adequacy of RH Services and Information
In terms of Availability, Accessibility, Sufficiency and Adequacy of RH Goods and
Services, the Commission documented experiences which ranged from excess in
terms of commodities as in the case of Marikina, to inconsistency in the provisions of
these goods, facilities and services to their inadequacy, insufficiency, and
inaccessibility, particularly to women who are vulnerable and most marginalized –
lesbian, bisexual and transgender women, women with disabilities, Moro and
Indigenous women and women living in geographically inaccessible areas. In many
instances, health facilities are inaccessible for women in geographically inaccessible
areas, and in cases where they are accessible, challenges are posed as to the
sufficiency of facilities and of supplies of the commodities available.
Interviews in government health facilities and with government health workers and
service providers often yielded positive results with claims that there is an excess of
RH commodities and goods. In all government facilities visited, except in Sorsogon
City, the Barangay Health Centers and Rural Health Units were able to show and share
with the Commission the full range of family planning commodities available. Most
shared that they have not yet experienced the effect of the PhP1 Billion cut on RH
commodities and that the lack of supplies they experience are not from lack of
available supply but a matter of timely seeking re-supply from RHU’s and the DOH.
There were admissions however that facilities could still be improved in barangay
health centers, RHUs and lying in clinics. There is also acknowledgment that
standards of doctor/nurse/midwife ratio to patients/clients served is not followed in
all of the facilities visited.
Accounts from interviews with community members and CSOs continue to reveal
inconsistency in the availability, accessibility, sufficiency and adequacy of RH services
and information. Across the five cluster areas, accounts of health centers seeking
donations were still documented, there were also accounts of health centers refusing
to dispense and provide RH commodities by reason of discrimination and at times
favoritism, there were accounts of unethical and unprofessional behavior of health
workers, and of delays in referral resulting in maternal deaths, in the island provinces
of Mindanao, there were accounts that health centers are unmanned due to security
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