Lagman seeks P6.7 billion for maternal health

MANILA, Philippines - House Minority Leader Edcel Lagman proposed yesterday that he and his colleagues allocate a total of P6.75 billion out of their pork barrel funds over a five-year period to improve maternal health and reduce maternal mortality.

He said each House member should earmark P5 million of his or her Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) allocation for maternal health programs in their districts.

He said P5 million per member would add up to P1.35 billion a year or P6.75 billion over five years.

Improving maternal health and reducing maternal mortality by 2015 is Millennium Development Goal (MDG) No. 5 of the United Nations.        

Lagman lamented that among the eight MDGs, “the least likely to be achieved is Goal No. 5.”

“Worldwide, the least progress has been in the area of reducing maternal mortality and improving maternal health,” he said.

“This mirrors the low status accorded to women in most societies because the goal that specifically protects and promotes their health and well-being is the one where the commitment of a majority of the signatory-countries is at best, faltering and at worst, feeble and half-hearted,” he said.

The Albay congressman pointed out that allocating funds through the PDAF for basic and emergency obstetric care and information campaign to avoid high-risk pregnancies would lower maternal mortality and morbidity.

“If we collectively adopt and implement this proposal starting 2011, we shall be able to harness P1.350 billion annually or P6.750 billion in five years in the House of Representatives alone,” he stressed.

“The enactment of a rights-based, development-oriented and health-driven law on reproductive health that is well-funded and national in scope will help ensure that the miracle of life will not mean death for so many mothers,” Lagman, principal author of the Reproductive Health Bill said.

He said 11 Filipino women die daily of causes related to pregnancy and childbirth.

The country’s current maternal mortality ratio (MMR) is pegged at a high of 162 deaths for every 100,000 live births, while the MDG target is an MMR of 52 by 2015, he said.

For 2011, President Aquino is proposing P24.8 billion in total PDAF allocations for 270 House members and 24 senators.

According to Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, each member of the House would continue to enjoy P70 million a year in PDAF funds, while the allocation for each senator would remain at P200 million a year.

However, unlike this year and in previous years, the lawmakers’ annual allocations would be fully reflected in the national budget.

The PDAF in this year’s budget amounts only to P10.8 billion. This is because the transparent PDAF, which is a lump sum and is so specified in the budget law, is the source of so-called “soft” projects of senators and congressmen like medical, livelihood and educational assistance.

The “hard” projects like roads are hidden in the budgets of infrastructure agencies like the Department of Public Works and Highways. On top of the embedded funds, lawmakers have the so-called “congressional initiatives,” the euphemism for budgetary insertions.

Abad has told lawmakers that President Aquino, in reflecting the PDAF in full in his proposed P1.6-trillion 2011 national budget, wants to discourage them from making budgetary insertions.