contraceptives. In 2014, the CEDAW Committee issued its finding on EO 003 as having “violated women’s rights to non-discrimination and health, which require the government to ensure women’s equal access to family planning services.” The committee recommended the following: improve the access to contraceptives in communities, provide quality postabortion care, to all public health families, review the discriminatory laws against women, strengthen existing machineries and establish mechanisms to ensure compliance and obligation and lastly, train health care providers on sexual and reproductive health services. In the conduct then of the fact finding and public hearing, part of the Commission’s objectives is to inquire as well on the implementation of the CEDAW Committee’s view. Based on the data from both the fact-finding mission and the public hearing, the following findings are issues surfaced: EFFECTIVENESS AND LEVELS OF IMPLEMENTATION OF RH SERVICES AND INFORMATION 1. UNEVEN IMPLEMENTATION AND EXISTENCE OF POLICIES THAT HINDER ACCESS TO RH SERVICES AND INFORMATION The fact finding in Manila, Quezon City, and Marikina City highlighted the uneven support and implementation of the RPRH law. Some LGUs are found to be more pro-active, while other LGUs allow implementation but lack support in terms of separate allocated funding for commodities and facilities. The unevenness in the implementation of the law can be seen in terms of policy and in actual practice at the level of barangay and the City-LGU level. In terms of policy, for instance, the Commission found that the City of Marikina passed a Contraceptive Self Reliance Ordinance (CSR) which mandates the allocation of 1 Million pesos annually in support of the implementation of the RH Law. In Quezon City, a Gender and Development Code has been adopted which commits full support for RH law. However, other local policies are not as supportive. In the City of Manila, while EO 003 of Atienza which declared the City of Manila as a “Pro-Life City” was already superseded by EO 030, the latter EO passed by Mayor Lim continue to bar the provision by the City of Manila of funding for artificial contraceptives. Upon inquiry, and as discussed in the Public Hearing, the decentralization in the delivery of health services has resulted to the unevenness in the support and implementation of the law and has resulted in the fragmented delivery of health services and information. Aside from these local policies, the Commission has also documented existing policies that affect full implementation of the law. We have noted the issuance by the Supreme Court of a Temporary Restraining Order on Implanon and we have documented that the same disproportionately affected not only women who wish to avail of Implanon but also health service providers in the City of Manila and in Marikina who are trained in administering Implanon, and who have boxes of supplies of Implanon but are prohibited from dispensing the same. Other policies that hinder implementation of the RPRH law include the practice of seeking spousal consent for tubal ligation which is practiced in some areas in Marikina, and 23

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