Saturday, February 7, 2009

Cordillera Folk Supports Bill for Free Health Care for the
Elderly

The elders of Cordillera expressed support for the bill seeking to

provide free health care for senior citizens in government hospitals. BY ARTHUR
L. ALLAD-IW REGIONS Northern Dispatch BAGUIO CITY – The elders of
Cordillera expressed support for the bill seeking to provide free health care for
senior citizens in government hospitals. Bayan Muna Representative [...]

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Travel for Health: A Sell-out of Philippine Health Care

Medical tourism is but one form of globalization of health care – foreign doctors,
foreign owned hospitals and medical facilities catering to foreign clients: a sell-
out of the country’s health care system to foreign big business that spells
government abandonment of its responsibility to provide much needed health
services to the people. BY PHILIP PARAAN [...]

CERTIFIED MALARIA- FREE

Health Secretary Enrique T. Ona and Governor Vilma Santos Recto join hands in
unveiling the official marker declaring Batangas as a Malaria-Free Province. The
Department of Health made the declaration after five years of intensive internal and
external evaluation and finding out that there is no trace of any local transmission. In his
message, Secretary Ona commended Batangas health workers and local officials headed
by Governor Vilma for their determined action and commitment to totally eradicate
malaria from the province. Malaria is a life-threatening disease transmitted by
mosquitoes. It affects 40% of the world’s population, putting 3.2 billion people at risk in
tropical countries like the Philippines. It is one of the leading causes of deaths worldwide.

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MEASLES-RUBELLA SUPPLEMENTAL
IMMUNIZATION ACTIVITY IN PASAY CITY
Health Assistant Secretary Paulynn Jean Rosell-Ubial (right), with Pasay City Mayor
Antonino Calixto (left) and Pasay City Congresswoman Imelda Calixto-Rubiano, led the
ceremonial Measles-Rubella Supplemental Immunization activity held at Barangay 179
covered court in Pasay City as the country’s pilot area for the Philippines’ commitment to
the 2008 World Health Assembly to achieve measles elimination. The DOH strategy of
door-to-door measles elimination campaign will cover all children aged nine months to
below eight years old. According to Asst. Sec. Ubial, the said measles vaccination
campaign, if successful, will make Pasay City the first local government unit to be
certified measles-free in the country and in the world.
www.climateactio2n.com

By Danny O. Calleja LEGAZPI CITY, Nov. 2 (PNA) --- Hundreds of country planners,
technocrats, local government leaders, legislators, academicians, scientists, civil society
movers and other development partners across the country gather here Wednesday for the
start of a three-day summit towards mainstreaming the country's climate change
adaptation (CCA) program. Albay Gov. Joey Salceda, a topnotch economist and financial
analysts who was recently named senior global champion of Disaster Risk Reduction
(DRR) by the United Nations (UN), will lead the province in playing host to the affair,
dubbed LGU (Local Government Unit) Summit+3i. This year's title of summit carries
along the symbol "+3i" to signify that the CAA program started by Albay in 2007 is
radiating in all three main islands of the country -- Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao --,
Salceda, who had also assumed the title "green economist", explained. The summit would
provide a venue for critical actors to agree that CCA is a critical developmental concern
that needs to be addressed to pursue and meet the country's commitment towards the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, Salceda said. LGUs, as front liners in
meeting the commitment towards achieving MDGs must recognize that "development as
usual" approach without considering climate variability and extremes, may pose as threat
in meeting these development goals, he stressed. "LGUs across the country must have a
concerted effort to fast track achievement of MDGs, especially at the local level, to meet
the 2015 target and share experiences in tracking their MDGs' progress," he added.
According to the MDG Achievement Fund (MDG-Fund), climate change is threatening
to hamper the Philippines' attainment of the MDGs because of the country's limited
capacity to undertake climate risk based planning and project implementation. To address
this handicap, it said mainstreaming climate risk reduction into key national and local
development planning and regulatory processes and enhancing capacities of key national
agencies, LGUs, academe and communities to undertake climate resilient development
should be adopted. Salceda also stressed that LGUs, should act as trailblazers of an
aggressive and proactive climate and disaster resilient development plans and programs
enshrined in the Local Government Code of 1991. The LGU Summit +3i, he said, is
designed to demonstrate and translate effective and efficient implementation of science-
based analyses for disaster risk reduction measures and build consensus towards a way
forward for CCA actions. Salceda noted that while the Philippines continues to intensify
its efforts to keep track with its MDG commitments for target year 2015, reducing
poverty, increasing food security, improving health and ensuring environmental
sustainability are progressing at a slow pace. According to the recent 2010 MDG
Progress Report, some challenges that affect the current situation include inadequate
investment, ineffective government policies and lack of commitment. The same report
also identified impacts that, apart from the global financial crisis and price shocks,
climate change (both climate variability and extreme) was identified as an imminent
threat to achieving the country's poverty, education, health, gender equality and
environmental sustainability commitments. It added that attainment of MDGs will be
more difficult for a developing country, especially for a climate hotspot country, like the
Philippines. Development, as usual, may not be enough to address these emerging threats.
Non action may bring about short term (loss of lives, property and environmental
integrity) and long term (reversal of development gains) impacts. Thus, increasing the
Philippines' capacity to implement adaptation measures is vital for meeting its 2015
MDG target. In a recent interview with Ugnayan sa Bikol, a regular radio program over
Radyo ng Bayan hosted by the regional office here of the Philippine Information Agency
(PIA), Executive Director Manuel Rangasa of Albay's Center for Initiatives and Research
on Climate Adaptation (CIRCA) said LGUs should be able to determine priority
adaptation measures that would facilitate MDGs achievement by target year 2015 during
the Nov. 4-6 summit. Rangasa who is also the summit's program director said that in the
interfacing, Albay will showcase its best working practices on DRR citing "pre-emptive
evacuation" of communities-at-risk resulting to "zero casualty" in times of disasters and
emergencies as adopted models in the country and recognized by the UN. Salceda, in
addressing the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) in Bonn,
Germany where he was named "Senior Champion" for CCA and DRR, said that given the
rising climate risks, no development is possible without adaptation. "It is development,
however, that gives meaning to adaptation," he stressed. "Adaptation is the duty of the
state simply because it is the poor that bears the brunt of climate impacts and natural
disasters - those who are most vulnerable are also the least capable of protection, those
who have more in risks also have less in resources," Salceda noted. Giving emphasis to
CCA, he said "the duty cannot be outsourced, it cannot be offshored, it cannot be
delegated. But it must do so by capacitating local communities and reinforcing local
governance - by making cities and provinces resilient." Albay, a calamity prone province
that faces the Pacific Ocean where most typhoons of the year originate, joined the
conference dubbed as Asia First World Congress on Cities and Adaptation to Climate
Change "Resilient Cities 2010", as a global model. The UN ISDR aims to build disaster
resilient communities by promoting increased awareness of the importance of disaster
reduction as a component of sustainable development. Salceda pioneered the "zero
casualty" policy through preemptive evacuation during disasters, and hosted the National
Conference on Climate Change Adaptation in two successive settings-- first at the Albay
Astrodome here in 2007 and the second at the Diamond Hotel in Manila in 2009. Both
were well acclaimed and attended by international crisis managers, scientists,
businessmen and students. Salceda was recognized as an outstanding campaigner and
implementer of CCA and DRR in a global gathering of that size since it puts the
Philippines in the forefront of these noble objectives. "I joined the ISDR campaign for
resilient cities as global role model for Asia for two reasons: first, Albay wants to learn
from the best practices in the rest of the world; second, we want to push ourselves higher
on standard to drive ourselves harder on this effort and to push the envelope on
development through DRR and CCA," Salceda said. He said adaptation is an investment,
not a cost. "It reduces risks, thus increases business returns. Albay has seen a surge in
investments even after typhoons Reming and Milenyo in 2006, Mayon eruptions in 2009
and a spate of recent disasters." CCA and DRR allow development to proceed amid
disasters and in the case of Albay, the governor said, it do not disrupt people's lives since
the provincial government takes charge of it. These efforts of the province concerning
CCA have also been adopted by the Philippine government due to a series of resolutions
"adopting the Albay Declaration of Climate Change Adaptation as a framework for the
mainstreaming of global warming concerns into the national and local planning" passed
by both the Senate and House of Representatives. The country's Climate Change
Commission (CCC) formed following these resolutions has stressed that implementation
of direct adaptation measures to address climate variability and extreme is highly local.
This means that the role of local governments is indispensable in shaping and
implementing successful adaptation measures that would ensure continuity of
development and provide safety nets for highly vulnerable groups, it added. (PNA)

RP will meet millennium goals, says health chief

Philippine Daily Inquirer

First Posted 08:23:00 09/24/2010

Filed Under: Health, Women

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippines will meet its Millennium Development Goals

(MDGs).

This was the statement made by Health Secretary Enrique Ona at the opening of the
Women Deliver Philippines Conference at the Crowne Plaza Hotel last week.

“The most problematic provisions of the Millennium Development Goals—infant and

neonatal mortality reduction (MDG4) and maternal mortality reduction (MDG5)—will be
met by the Philippines despite statistics saying that the country will fall shorthanded,”
Ona said.

The MDGs are time-bound development goals set by governments of 188 member
countries during the 2000 Millennium Declaration. These goals, globally accepted as the
means to curb poverty, hunger and alleviate education and health, will be evaluated in
2015.
The three-day Women Deliver Conference focused on MDG4 and MDG5 with hopes of
finding ways to reduce their number. From 1990 to 2008, mortality of infants and
children under five years old was significantly reduced by more than half and the
Philippines is on track of meeting MDG 4 by 2015, Ona added.

However, of all the MDGs, the reduction of maternal mortality (MDG 5) by three-fourths
and providing universal access to reproductive health has made the least progress in the
Philippines.

In 1990, the maternal mortality rate of the Philippines was 209 deaths per 100,000 live
births which translated to the target 52 deaths per 100,000 live births by 2015. However,
recent studies show that the maternal mortality rate of the country is still at 162 deaths
per 100,000 which is still thrice the target figure, and there are only 5 years left. The
country’s maternal mortality rate is still one of the highest in Asia.

In his speech, Ambassador Alistair MacDonald, head of the European Union delegation
to the Philippines, said “5,000 women die each year giving birth and as this day ends, 11
women will have needlessly died and on this same day some 42 children will have
become orphaned—when 90 percent of all maternal deaths could have been averted, with
proper care, and proper services.”

“The whole Department of Health under the Universal Health Care Agenda of the
Aquino government is under marching orders to provide universal access to reproductive
health to meet the Millennium Development Goals,” said Ona.

Ona said that in 2009, 400 infrastructures and medical facilities were upgraded
nationwide, including in the ARMM region where the highest numbers of maternal and
newborn deaths are
registered.

Ona said that despite budget constraints, local agencies—particularly the Department of
Health (DoH), Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of
Education, National Commission on Indigenous People, Commission on Human Rights
—are integrating development plans to address the encompassing issues related to
MDG5.

MacDonald said that EU’s support to the Philippines has been focused on poverty
reduction and improvement of the health status of the local population, in partnership
with the DoH. Grants now total P2.7 billion on on-going programs.

“Starting this year until 2013, another P4.7 billion will be granted by the European Union
for further projects and developments in support of the Philippines Health Sector Reform
Agenda,” he added.