Professor Gerardo V. Eusebio on the RH Bill

POSITION PAPER OF PROF. GERARDO V. EUSEBIO (FORMER DIRECTOR OF THE SOCIAL MARKETING SERVICE, DSWD) ON THE REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH BILL

This is the one Prof. Garardo V. Eusebio sent for me to read during the first RH Bill Forum in Laguna- December 11, 2010, Hidden Hills Farm, Calauan, Laguna wt 26 municipalities and four cities of Laguna.

About:
“DO IT RIGHT” advocacy

Description:In order for us to be concerned, we need to be educated first and be aware. This group aims to show you all the methods, concepts and different approach to do this. We are united for doing what’s right and right alone.

How are we going to do this?
-Through discussions and exchanging of different ideas.
We are all human with right to choose, why not do it the right way?
-Feeding programs
-Seminars and Forums
-Tree Planting
-Cleaning/ RA 9003
-Events

As a student, mother, entrepreneur, activist, environmentalist and member of this society. I know we can do it only if we are united as one, one step at a time, we can do everything.

We need to be aware about our environment, government and most of all our local community.

Be aware and be concern. This advocacy s also about women empowerement.

Religion or No religion at all, from different parts of our nation, for everyone. lets do it.

Prof. Gerardo V. Eusebio has been the Director of the Social Marketing Service of the Department of Social Welfare and Development from May 2008 to September 2009. During his tenure with the Department he was an integral player in the crafting and propagation of the DSWD’s RH Bill policy at that time.

In the 2009 Communications Plan of the Social Marketing Service, the RH Bill is included among the bills that the Department will push for enactment. During that time, it was noted in the said ComPlan that “Nearly 7 in 10 respondents (68%) are aware of the Reproductive Health Bill, over 6 in 10 (63%) report that they favor the bill while only 8% are opposed.” These figures were taken out of a Pulse Asia survey in the 4th quarter of 2008.

The findings manifest that population growth and the role of government in educating the people with regard to reproductive health are important public policy issues. DSWD can serve as harbinger in mobilizing support and resources to effectively push for the passage of the Reproductive Health Bill. The Department can engage with key individuals, organizations, government agencies, and civil society to elevate the RH Bill discourse into educational activities that can engender concrete support for the Bill. It is also important to revisit the module on responsible parenthood and to plan for its wider implementation.

In a news report dated October 16, 2008 it was reported that 71% of Filipino adults favor the passage of the Reproductive Health Bill.

On September 29, 2008, the Social Marketing Service undertook a research on the salient and positive points of the Reproductive Health Bill and released the same for public consumption through a brochure:

1. The Reproductive Health Bill seeks to promote the quality of life through an informed choice about pregnancy and planning one’s family.

2. Professors from the UP College of Economics say that maternal mortality is currently at a high of 162 for every 100,000 live births. Having too many and too closely-spaced children raises the risk of illness and premature births for both mother and child. Ten women die daily owing to pregnancy and causes related to child-birth.

3. Many unwanted pregnancies result in induced and illegal abortions numbering nearly half a million annually as estimated from reported cases in 2000.

4. The Reproductive Health Bill also aims to provide information on and access to a whole range of traditional, natural and artificial methods of planning one’s family.

5. According to studies, correct and regular use of contraceptives reduces abortion rate by as much as 85 percent and negates the need to legalize abortion.

6. If the bill shall not become a law, abortions resulting from unplanned pregnancies will continue unabated, perhaps even increase with the growth of the population.

7. The bill only offers options and informed choices. There is nothing mandatory or compulsory about it.

8. People can choose to plan the number of their children and are free to be guided or ignore the bill if it becomes a law. They have freedom of choice, depending on their own beliefs, systems and needs.

9. The Reproductive Health Bill is pro-life, not anti-life.

In conclusion, the writer, Professor Eusebio does not seek to influence the position of the present leadership of the DSWD on the RH Bill because he is not sure whether it sustained the pro-RH Bill position of the former leadership.

Upon checking the website of the DSWD he was not able to come across the official position of the Department on the said bill. Further, the writer submits this paper to this forum as his own personal position (today and during his tenure with the DSWD) and not that of the DSWD although it is highly possible that the DSWD sustained the stand of the former leadership.

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