WITH the population of the Philippines forecast to reach 104 million by this year, the Department of Health expressed concern it will need an additional P3 billion to P4 billion to fund the government’s P6-billion immunization program.
Health Secretary Janette Garin described as a huge challenge the Commission on Population projection that around 1.5-million babies are expected to be born this year by 23-million women, aged 15 to 49, who are of reproductive age.
With this surge from the current population of 102.4 million, PopCom executive director Juan Antonio Perez III said the country will probably have the “biggest number of women of reproductive age that we will ever see, at 25 to 30 million” in five to 10 years.
“We have many five- to 10-year-old girls who will become reproductive in the next five years. We cannot do anything about that. So what we are trying to do is reduce their need for services,” Perez said.
Meanwhile, Garin said the surge poses a huge challenge to the immunization and family planning programs of the government.
“It’s actually a huge challenge especially that one of the biggest programs that we have is the national immunization program,” Garin said in an interview with the ABS-CBN News Channel.
“We have been moving forward including adolescent immunization, giving booster doses in government public schools and an increase in population would redound to a demand for an increased budget,” she said.
At present, Garin said the DoH’s immunization budget is currently estimated at around P5 to P6 billion.
“We would be needing an additional of P3 to P4 billion, if you include them in the regular programs that we have around, P3.5 billion. But if you include the other regions as well for the specialized, the new vaccines that we are introducing, it would be another P500 million,” she said.
The health chief said the population is expected to expand further in the coming years because the country has no policy limiting how many children a family can have.
In the Philippines, she said there is a wide base triangle. She said this means half of our population are young, or 40 years old and below, but bulk of the population is within the reproductive age.
She further stated the DOH lacks budget for contraception, following the Supreme Court’s decision prohibiting the distribution of family planning implants.
“What we have as a problem is that every time our budget passes through Congress and Senate, there is always a threat that the budget for the procurement of family planning commodities are being removed,” she said.
“Unfortunately, the Supreme Court decided that all government entities cannot distribute and use this,” she added.
She likewise said the DOH is in a dilemma with the passage of the Reproductive Health Law, adding that the department will now have to depend on donors for contraceptives as it has no funds to purchase.
“Implementing [the] Reproductive Health [Law], making these commodities available is actually a matter of political will,” Garin said.
“Because the very institution that is against it is very powerful and they can campaign against you. They can make your political career. It will be very difficult for you especially if they would touch on the other issues that are not directly related to reproductive health but they can use it as a weapon against you or against your political career,” she said
Based on PopCom data, the contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) for modern family planning increased by three percent to 46 percent in 2013 to 2014.
Perez said this is the second year of increased CPR, with an increase of 39 percent in 2012 to 43 percent in 2013.
This seven-percent increase in the last two years also represents a 1.4 million increase in the number of women practicing modern family planning. It is now pegged at nine million.
To effectively reduce the unmet needs for modern family planning, CPR must rise to at least 65 percent, which requires providing services for another five million couples or individuals.