RH law well on the way

My column on June 12, was on Basilan Governor Jim Hataman-Salliman’s negative reaction to Atom Araullo’s I-Witness documentary “Panday.” In fairness, I am reproducing GMA Network’s senior program manager of I-Witness Joy Madrigal’s letter to Governor Hataman-Salliman explaining that the documentary was produced “with sensitivity and respect.” Here are portions of the letter.

“It is unfortunate that you found the documentary unfavorable, thus, we would like to take this opportunity to explain our side.

“Late last year, we came across the study of Dr. Sitti Amilasan on the practice of female circumcision of Yakans in Basilan. It was the first time our group heard of such practice. We decided to do further research on the story and held pocket production meetings to discuss the topic.

“Prior to the production of ‘Panday,’ we already understood the sensitivity of the story. For this reason, we went through a thorough process of consulting various groups regarding the story. In fact, we spent several months doing our research. We consulted the Institute of Islamic Studies of the University of the Philippines, we contacted Dr. Sitti Amilasan, the author of the study that served as basis of our documentary, coordinated with the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos and even the local government.

“When we reached Basilan, we met Ka Embong, the ‘Panday’ in the documentary who identifies with the Yakan but is also half Tausug. Ka Embong is also a Kah Dayang, a teacher who acts as a health worker. There was a significant discussion about their role in the documentary, that the Kah Dayangs are first responders in the community during emergency cases, bringing patients to hospitals. Even Ka Embong acknowledges this. We reported an organized structure not present in all communities.

“The documentary also acknowledged the developments in Basilan and recognized the efforts of the government to augment health services through medical missions such as the one documented by the team in Barangay Baluno in Isabela, Basilan. As much as we want to visit other areas in Basilan, we were advised by the Western Mindanao Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, as well as our contacts, that it was risky to move to other places due to a recent beheading incident of three men by an unknown group. We had no way to confirm this but we heeded their advice.

“We were surprised when issues like the spelling of ‘Panday’ and the attire of Ka Embong came out. Dr. Sitti Amilasan, a Yakan herself confirmed that both spellings – ’Panday’ and ‘Pandey’ – are acceptable. This was also confirmed to us by the Institute of Islamic Studies of the University of the Philippines when we consulted them. According to both, there is no required attire in performing the ritual of female circumcision.

“I-Witness takes to heart the stories that we do and the people we interview with sensitivity and respect. This goes for all our documentaries. We have no intention to disrespect and malign the province and its people. The documentary only sought to present the role of a ‘Panday’ amidst her community. In the future, we will consider coming back to Basilan to do more stories about the province and its beautiful people. We hope that you will welcome us and our team.”

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Dr. Juan Antonio Perez III, executive director of the Commission on Population, hails the denial by the Court of Appeals of the motion for reconsideration of Alliance for the Family Foundation Philippines Inc. (Alfi) to bar the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from certifying contraceptives. The court denial, Dr. Perez says, makes women and individuals who have been longing for reproductive health services “to be more hopeful that the promise of the Reproductive Health law will be fully realized as another legal challenge to its implementation has been hurdled.” 

This development is a big push to the thrust of the Duterte administration to fully implement the said law as one of its socio-economic agenda, notes Perez. “President Duterte has repeatedly articulated in his last State of the Nation Address and through Executive Order No. 12 the need to assist couples and individuals to achieve their desired timing and spacing of children through full access to reproductive health including family planning information and services.”

 The government can now “fulfill the promise of the law to provide reproductive health care, particularly universal access to family planning information and services for all women and couples,” says Perez. 

“The true winners in this legal action,” Perez continues, “are actually the women, men, and adolescents who have been long clamoring for accessible reproductive health services. This now calls for the collective action by the national and local government units as well as its partners – the civil society organizations and the private sector – to create an enabling program and policy environment for every Filipino to enjoy and fulfill all the benefits the RH law has accorded to them.” 

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 The Philippine Reproductive Health Law does not allow abortion as a family planning method. But Argentina’s lower house of Congress has approved a bill allowing women to terminate pregnancies up to 14 weeks on grounds of rape, risk to life of the woman, and severe malformation of the fetus.

“This is great news! Argentina has approved the bill paving legal reforms to increase access to safe and legal abortion and members of the upper house have also announced their support for the measure. Thanks to the women’s rights groups who have staged large rallies various parts of the country,” said Atty. Clara Rita Padilla in a press statement I received. Padilla is the executive director of EnGendeRights and spokesperson of the Philippine Safe Abortion Advocacy Network (PINSAN).

“This step is significant in helping save lives of women in Argentina. In the past, there was a young Argentinian girl who was refused an abortion whose baby died soon after birth and who eventually died too. Just in May, Ireland paved the way to increase access to abortion in its historic referendum. The Irish citizens overwhelmingly voted 66.4 percent to repeal the 8th amendment to its constitution clearly manifesting respect for women’s right to decide and a significant step to save women’s lives and freedom from disability resulting from denial of access to safe and legal abortion,” Atty. Padilla emphasized.

Padilla hopes the Philippines “will follow this global liberalization on abortion laws and soon decriminalize abortion since presently abortion is only recognized in our country to save the woman’s life and for medical necessity based on a 1961 Supreme Court decision.”

Abortion is common in the Philippines with about 70 women inducing abortion every hour and about 11 women hospitalized every hour from unsafe abortion complications in 2012. Unsafe abortion is the third leading cause of maternal death and is a leading cause of hospitalizations, says Padilla.

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