ANNEXES

The ‘A’ word

posted August 03, 2019 at 12:50 am by Elizabeth Angsioco

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"The best prevention is a strong, efficient, and comprehensive family planning program."
Years ago, a former staff of my organization called our office, desperate for help. It turned out
that not long after resigning, she moved in with her boyfriend and got pregnant. When the guy
found out, he packed up and left just like that.
The girl (she was barely 18 then) went home to her mother where she could prepare for
childbirth. Unfortunately, she had a miscarriage and because they were poor, was rushed to the
nearest public hospital where she was treated very inhumanely. She called my office when she
has been at the hospital for hours begging to be treated. The fetus was already exposed between
her legs. Yet, a nurse asked her if she was really pregnant. Next, she was accused of having an
abortion which she did not.
I had a colleague rush to her and if necessary, transfer her to another hospital for proper medical
attention. This happened and the doctor in the next hospital said that had we delayed bringing her
in, she could have died. She had no money, the public hospital was full, and because she was
young, she was accused of having an abortion. However, these do not justify how the first
hospital dealt with the poor girl.
I will never forget this horror story as an advocate for sexual and reproductive health and rights
(SRHR). SRHR pertains to many issues including divorce, family planning, teenage pregnancy,
LGBTQI++ rights, and abortion. The biggest elephant in the room is abortion.
Abortion has always been totally prohibited in the Philippines. Besides religious dogma, the
Philippine Constitution is mainly used by anti-abortion groups to block any attempt to legalize or
decriminalize it even in select circumstances. Moreover, the 90-year-old Philippine Revised
Penal Code specifically Articles 256 to 259, heavily penalizes abortion.
The Philippines is a predominantly Catholic and the church is the most vocal and influential
opposition to SRHR. Due to religion, many Filipinos regard abortion as akin to murder and thus,
culturally, it is heavily stigmatized.
It is so stigmatized that even objectively discussing about it is taboo. I remember how in 2014,
anti-SRHR groups petitioned a Pasay Court to issue a Temporary Restraining Order and stop the
then on going Asia-Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights on the
basis that the event allegedly encouraged abortion. The Court ruled that there was no actual
abortion done in the conference and that talking about abortion was not illegal.
Many times, people are “silenced” to discuss a very real problem lest be accused of being an
abortionist. Non-judgmental and non-moralizing discourse on abortion is quite rare. During the
16 years of advocacy for the passage of the then RH bill into law, anti-RH groups led by the
Catholic hierarchy relentlessly equated the bill with abortion and anti-abortion rhetoric
dominated the public debate.
But stigmatizing abortion discussions does not make the problem go away. Despite the illegality
and the strong stigma, hundreds of thousands of abortions happen in the Philippines annually.
The most reliable estimates come from The Guttmacher Institute’s ‘Unintended Pregnancy and
Unsafe Abortion in the Philippines’ published in July 2013 using the national abortion rate in the
year 2000 as basis and took into consideration population growth said: Abortion is widespread.
An estimated 610,000 abortions happened in 2012.
Those who undergo abortions are typically Catholic, married, have an average of three children,
and have at least high school education.
Most common reason for having an abortion is economic , that is, the inability to afford to raise
another child. Other reasons are: They already had enough children, and the pregnancy came too
soon after the last.
Nearly all abortions are clandestine and risky. Providers have varying training and skills. Some
moneyed women are able to obtain medically recommended procedures. Most, however, resort
to untrained providers who use dangerous methods that put women at serious risk. Poor women
are more significantly likely to use riskier methods than non-poor women and, therefore,
experience severe complications much more.
About 1,000 Filipino women die each year from abortion complications. In 2012, about 100,000
women were hospitalized for such.
Logically, because the estimates were for 2012, the numbers of abortion incidence,
hospitalization, complications, and deaths must be significantly higher now with population
growth and unintended pregnancy rates that remain high. While the RH law is there, data from
the 2017 National Demographic and Health Survey show that the implementation of family
planning program did not significantly improve.
Abortion is also a class issue because it disproportionately affects poor, underprivileged, and
women who are in geographically isolated or hard to reach areas. While there is no exemption in
the ban, not even to save the woman’s life, there are talks about medical doctors who perform
therapeutic abortions to save women’s health or life. This is not cheap and only rich women are
able to afford such. The Guttmacher piece also noted that more poor women undergo riskier
abortions from untrained and unskilled “service providers.” Obviously, this is due to financial
constraints.
A Rappler article entitled “Secret service: Underground doctors induce safe abortions” discussed
the existence of an underground network of medical doctors who provide abortion services. The
network is very difficult to find according to it. The costs involved are prohibitive. For instance,
termination of a first trimester pregnancy costs between P3,000 and P12,000 depending on the
medicines used. Surgical packages for this type of pregnancy range from P10,000 to P20,000.
For second trimester, the surgical packages range from P15,000 to P25,000 while for third
trimester, one has to pay between P20,000 to P25,000 or higher if there are complications.
These are only for the procedure itself and exclude supplies and some medicines. The doctors do
the procedure in motels and hotels. Thus, more costs are incurred. Add- on services can be had
like bedside doctor assistance, nurse service, and additional post-abortion uterine irrigation for
additional fees. No poor woman can afford these. Thus, like many other issues, unsafe abortion
disproportionately affects poor women.
While abortion is a hard topic to tackle, it is a problem that people need to understand, and the
government, to address. There is a need to objectively discuss the problem so it is demystified
and the stigma is lessened. Thus, women and girls would not suffer like my former staff did.
The best prevention is a strong, efficient, and comprehensive family planning program. The root
cause of abortion is unplanned or unwanted pregnancy. Remove this and the number of abortions
will drastically go down. While we talk about abortion, government must fully implementation
the RH law.
@bethangsioco on Twitter Elizabeth Angsioco on Facebook

Link:
http://manilastandard.net/opinion/columns/power-point-by-elizabeth-angsioco/301394/the-a-
word.html
retrieved 9:55am, August 08, 2019
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Deped Policies, Protocols In Place In Handling Learners, Personnel Displaced
By Disasters
Published August 6, 2019, 12:05 AM

By Merlina Hernando-Malipot

Education Secretary Leonor Briones assured that policies and protocols are in place
when it comes to dealing with learners and its personnel who are displaced by
disasters and emergencies arising from natural and human-induced hazards.

Education Secretary Leonor Briones

(DEPED / MANILA BULLETIN)

“It has become some sort of a protocol that when there is a natural disaster or an occasion which
displaces learners, we move into action immediately,” Briones said in an earlier interview.
DepEd, she said, also has a Disaster Risk Reduction Management System (DRRMS) and its staff
to monitor these events.

“We visit the place immediately to assess the damage, take notes of what needs to be done and if
it’s possible, I visit myself,” Briones said. “In many occasions, I have listed places of natural
disasters and I was also monitoring other events that have impact on education,” she added.

Briones noted that DepEd already has “an existing reporting system” which makes transfer of
information and communication more efficient. Moreover, DepEd officials in the regional and
school division levels are also directed to assess the situation should natural or man-made
disasters strike. “They [local DepEd officials] usually act on their own and report to us the
soonest possible time,” she added.

Addressing Displacement
Meanwhile, Briones underscored the need for the Philippines – as well as other countries – to
address displacement because of its “serious impact” on education.

In a keynote speech during the Philippine launch of the 2019 Global Education Monitoring
(GEM) Report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO), Briones discussed how displacement, as well as migration, are “linked to many
issues and challenges” such as political, internal, and external – among many others.

When it comes to addressing displacement, Briones mentioned the case of the Marawi siege as
an example of how the DepEd handled the affected learners. During the siege, DepEd mandated
all schools nationwide to accept displaced learners even if they had no school documents with
them.

“The experience of Marawi, I think, reflects and reminds us, especially Filipinos—again and
again—that we are a loving and caring people,” Briones said. “I once said, and I say this with
great courage, and perhaps impudence: we are not racists – we are not against other cultures; we
are not against people of color because we are people of color ourselves.”

The theme of the 2019 GEM Report was “Migration, displacement and education: Building
bridges, not walls.” It highlighted the “implications of different types of migration and
displacement on education systems” and presented evidence on the “gaps in educational
opportunities and outcomes between immigrant and displaced learners and their peers in host
communities.”

Expounding on the UNESCO’s report, Briones noted that it is a “great policy to take care of
migrants and displaced persons, not only because they are fellow humans, but because they also
make great contributions to our own culture.” The 2019 GEM Report likewise looked at the
reverse influence of education on migration and displacement and how reforming curricula,
textbooks, and teacher education can lead to addressing diversity and achieving inclusion.

For UNESCO Jakarta Office Director and Representative Dr. Shahbaz Khan, it is of utmost
importance to organize “high-level dialogue” on policies proven by evidence to provide holistic
quality education for migrants and those forcibly displaced.

“If we want to achieve real progress, we need to continue the conversation and shed light to the
various factors that prevent us from providing education to our children,” Khan said. “From now
on, protracted crises, short-term catastrophes, and migration should be taken into consideration
not only in crafting policies for education but in forging new partnerships among organizations
who want to give focus on the needs of our learners considered to be part of the poorest, most
vulnerable, and those further behind,” he added.
The 2019 GEM Report estimated that in 2017, there were 258 million international migrants and
over 87 million people displaced, either due to conflict, persecution, or natural disaster. In the
case of the Philippines, the Report shows that “migration has affected the country positively.”

“The country showed an increase in school attendance and reduced child labor due to the rise in
international remittances from the migrant workers,” the report cited. “Around 1.5 to three
million children in the Philippines have parents living abroad and the majority of them spend
remittances they receive on education,” it added.

On the other hand, the GEM Report also took note of the “conflicts in some parts of the country
and natural disasters resulting in internal displacement continue to exacerbate people’s
vulnerability as this deprives them access to quality education.” Meanwhile, DepEd’s Alternative
Learning System (ALS) program was recognized as one of the solutions that “can help children
whose education was interrupted by displacement.”

The 2019 GEM Report launch aimed to increase awareness of the report’s messages and
recommendations with the wider education community, with those working on humanitarian
responses, and specifically with government officials and policymakers.

Link:

https://news.mb.com.ph/2019/08/06/deped-policies-protocols-in-place-in-handling-learners-
personnel-displaced-by-disasters/

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