are beneficiaries of the national conditional cash transfer program, are also compelled to have
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facility-assisted births otherwise they would not receive their cash grants.
On the other hand, lack of information on reproductive health and the RH law can also create a
barrier between the women and their rights. In the case of Muslim and IP women, they may
construe the some of the provisions of the RH law to be against their cultural beliefs and practices,
thus will not avail of the RH programs and services. For example, despite the fatwa on the
acceptability of RH in Islam, many Muslim women are still reluctant or unwilling to learn more
about RH. This was also observed among some IP women despite their elders claiming that the law
is not against their culture. There are also Catholic women who cite religious beliefs as reasons to
shun certain reproductive health and rights messages and services, and even actively oppose them
for their communities.
Men are also excluded in the process when reproductive health and rights are put across as a
women-only issue. Traditional constructions of gender roles and sexuality, wherein women
subsumed under the care of their fathers and husbands, are likely to continue when men are not
engaged in the discussion. Specific concerns related to this are the issues on requiring male spousal
consent on accessing RH services, abuse of women in the context of intimate relationships, and
equal decision-making on all matters regarding the family.
The RH law stipulates that there should be age- and development-appropriate sexuality and
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reproductive health education in all Department of Education (DepEd) supervised schools, yet the
extent that this has been implemented is yet to be documented. Under the law, the DepEd shall also
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provide a template curriculum to be used by public schools and may be adopted by private schools.
The CHR also noted that other RH information is often not included in information, education and
communication programs and activities on the same. These include topics such as violence against
women and its remedies, HIV/AIDS, mental health and RH concerns of marginalized groups such
as older women, LBTs (lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders), women living with HIV/AIDS and
women with disabilities.
Lack of Infrastructure and Trained Personnel Support
The state of the health care system in the country had been presented earlier, that is, it suffers from
lack of facilities and personnel to achieve its targets including those related to maternal mortality and
reproductive health in general. Displacement due to disasters, including from natural hazards,
development aggression and armed conflicts are situations where the breakdown of RH service
delivery is more evident, because of the destruction of facilities, increase in the geographic distance
to reach the IDP (internally displaced people) communities or for people from these communities to
reach health facilities, or low prioritization and outright neglect of the RH needs of women in these
situations. Deployment of health workers to serve in conflict areas is also a major factor in this gap.
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IBON (2016).
Section 14, RA 10354.
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Ibid.
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23
RH Situationer: Phlippines (November 2017)
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