Training center in Baclayon, Bohol accepts bookings

The Balay Kahimsog currently accepts bookings for seminars, retreats and other gatherings of government agencies, schools, and non-government organizations at affordable prices.

Located on top of the hills of Barangay Cambanac, Baclayon, Bohol surrounded by trees, vegetables and flowers and the majestic mountains of Bohol, it is reached by any vehicle about 15 minutes ride from the main highway of Baclayon, about seven kilometers from Tagbilaran City.

Built primarily from funds generated by the Fil-Am Center for Community Health and Development (FACCHD) in Pleasanton, Califonia, U.S.A, the construction took nearly four years. It started operation in the second quarter 2009 and has since then accepted bookings from different groups.

It is also a training center for health workers in community-based health programs in Central Visayas region, and a resource center for primary health care and alternative forms of medicine including herbal medicine and acupuncture.

It is a concrete two-storey building with a spacious conference hall that occupies the entire second floor, an office, a kitchen, a dining hall, sleeping quarters, and a clinic for medical consultation and acupuncture.

Interested parties may contact Ms. Linda de Castro, Balay Kahimsog in-charge 09284149483. or e-mail vphcsi@yahoo.com.ph

Medical mission in Ubay, Bohol

Around 175 children were served during the medical mission conducted by the Visayas Primary Health Care Services in coordination the Pangpang Farmers and Fisherfolks Organization (PAF0) in Barangay Pangpay, Ubay, Bohol on Feb. 27, 2010.

The team of volunteer doctors and health staff together with members of the Student Alliance for Community Health Services (SACHS) students of Holy Name University University in Tagbilaran City rendered the health services which included urinalysis, nutritional status determination, visual acuity testing, dental check-up and medical check-up.

The VPHCS started such type of medical mission of physical examination of children last March 2009 with the objective of screening of visual, urinary tract and dental problems, malnutrition and other problems which could impair the proper growth and development of the children. The VPHCS shall come up with a health profile and recommendations for intervention of the children.

Community-based health programs in Cebu

The Visayas Primary Health Care Services, Inc. (VPHCS) has continued to work with people’s organizations to develop and strengthen primary health care programs in various marginalized communities in Cebu.

In the urban poor communities of St. Mary Grace in Talamban and Barangay Pasil in Cebu City, Sitio Back of Matimco in Barangay Subangdaku, Mandaue City and Sitio Salvage in Barangay Looc, Lapu-lapu City, community health workers (CHWs) that the VPHCS have trained are delivering basic and essential health services to the community residents.

The people’s associations include the St. Mary Grace Neighborhood Association in St. Mary Grace, the Pasil Women’s Organization, the Kaming Lumulupyo walay Sandigan (KALUWASAN) in Sitio Back of Matimco, and the Anakpawis – Looc Chapter in Sitio Salvage.

The services include basic home remedies of ordinary illnesses such as cough, colds and fever, herbal medicine processing and dispensing, operation blood pressure, a community kitchen and feeding program, home visitations and health education on common problems in the communities.



The Association Soeur Emmanuelle (Asmae), a funding agency in France supports the activities in St. Mary Grace, Sitio Back of Matimco and Looc. It is also supporting the construction of simple health centers in the latter two communities.





In Pasil, the CHWs are actively conducting information drives and case finding for tuberculosis. Health educations are being conducted on the signs and symptoms of the number six killer disease in the country and symptomatic patients are referred to the local health center for sputum examination.

SMS hotline for RH

If you are young and you have problems related with sex, pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, contraception, or other aspects of adolescent reproductive health, the VPHCS can help you.

In line with its current project, the Yo! Lead (A Leadership Program for Youth–initiated RH Advocacy and Services in the Philippines) the VPHCS has a hotline called the Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH) Short Message Service (SMS) hotline.

Peer educators of the Y4R network who have been trained and mentored since 2006 answer confidential queries on SRH of interested youth through SMS or text message, making the transfer of accurate SRH information and peer counseling to peers more accessible and youth-friendly.

A manual for peer educators containing information, guidance and standard procedures for the hotline serves as a guide in answering text messages received by them and VPHCS personnel.

The numbers of the hotline in Cebu are the following,

for schools, 09275597203, 09081287568, 09326928525;
for communities, 09275819903, 09291053857, 09326928558.

Bohol: 09275597095, 09081286547, 09323675500.

Negros: 09275597202, 09081286546, 09326928557.

Reproductive Rights Advocates Call on Candidates to Uphold Reproductive Rights--Consent to the Visit of CEDAW Experts and UN Special Rapporteurs

Quezon City, February 18, 2009 – We call on the candidates for the national, congressional, and local elections to uphold reproductive rights and make reproductive health part of their program of action providing the necessary budget for RH information and supplies. We urge the current and the future government officials to consent to the visits of the UN CEDAW experts[1] and the UN Special Rapporteurs[2] on their investigation of reproductive rights violations in the Philippines . We urge the future members of the 15th Congress to the pass the Reproductive Health Care Bill (RH bill) into law immediately.

We urge electorates to vote for candidates who are supporting the passage of the RH bill into Law. It has been over eight years since the first RH bill has been filed in Congress. The failure to pass the RH bill has been detrimental to the health and lives of Filipinos especially women and children.

According to the recently-launched 2008 National Demographic and Health Survey (2008 NDHS 2008), one in three births is either unwanted or mistimed; over half of married women age 15-49 do not want another child; 82 percent of married women want either to space their births or to limit childbearing altogether. The total unmet need for family planning[3] is 22 percent with highest unmet need for women age 15-19, lowest quintile of wealth, rural women and women in ARMM while the contraceptive prevalence rate among currently married women who use modern methods is a mere 34 percent. Twenty-six percent of women age 15-24 have already began child-bearing.

The 2008 NDHS also cites health concerns and fear of side effects as the two foremost reasons why women do not use contraceptives while only three percent do not use contraceptives because of religious belief. Only 44 percent of births occur in health facilities and only 62% of births are assisted by a health professional.[4] The under-five mortality rate for children born less than two years after a previous birth is 54 deaths per 1,000 live births, compared with 25 deaths per 1,000 for children born after an interval of four or more years showing the importance of birth spacing for the health of the children and that of the mother. The infant mortality rate from 2004-2008 is 25 deaths per 1,000 live births and the under-five mortality rate is 34 deaths per 1,000 live births[5] showing the impact of unintended pregnancies and lack of access to reproductive health information and supplies.

Nationwide, almost half of all pregnancies are unintended.[6] Based on the UNFPA State of the World Population Report (SWPR) in 2008, the maternal mortality ratio was 230 maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births.[7] This translated to 11 women dying per day while giving birth. Not a single death should happen due to pregnancy and childbirth. These are preventable deaths. Deaths that could have been prevented by proper information and access to services while we have aspiring government officials and current government officials who do not support the passage of the RH bill and even restrict access to modern contraceptives such as in the case of Manila City .

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has identified in its guidelines for voters that they should not vote for candidates who support the RH bill. The above findings on the negative impact of the non-passage of the RH bill and the restriction of access to modern contraceptives show that the CBCP is not responsive to the needs of the Filipinos—Catholics included. “The CBCP’s stance on the RH bill is detrimental to women’s reproductive rights. CBCP is completely disregarding the needs of Filipinos and this is detrimental to the lives and well-being of Filipinos especially the poor,” said Attorney Clara Rita A. Padilla, Executive Director of EnGendeRights.

“The 2008 national and Manila City surveys of the Social Weather Stations both confirm that majority of Filipinos want the RH bill passed into law, 71% and 86%, respectively. Politically, it is popular for legislators to support the RH bill. With these statistics, a c lea r support for the RH bill increases the possibility of winning a seat in the coming 2010 elections. More and more voters are keeping tab,” added Benjamin de Leon, President of The Forum for Family Planning and Development.

“As can be seen in the survey, the residents of Manila want the RH bill passed into law. The poor of Manila took the brunt of former Mayor Atienza’s policy under EO 003 (Series of 2000) by restricting their access to contraceptives. And they are still feeling the impact of such restrictive policy even now under Mayor Lim’s term since the Office of the Mayor is not providing funds to buy free contraceptives for Manila residents. The impact of such a policy is especially felt by poor women who cannot even afford to buy a 25 peso kilo of rice for their families,” stressed Benjamin de Leon.

Ramon San Pascual, Executive Director of Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development (PLCPD), stressed that, “The impact of the lack of reproductive health information and access to health care services is grave especially to poor women who do not have money to pay for their own contraceptive supplies and for counseling from private doctors.”
“If we have a comprehensive reproductive health care law, we will not have these restrictive policies in place. We will have more women having access to sexuality education and reproductive health information and services,” says Ramon San Pascual.

It is the obligation of the Philippine government as cited in the 2006 Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW Committee) Concluding Comments on the Philippines to “strengthen measures aimed at the prevention of unwanted pregnancies, including by making a comprehensive range of contraceptives more widely available and without any restriction”; “give priority attention to the situation of adolescents and that it provide sex education, targeted at girls and boys, with special attention to the prevention of early pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.”

“Our representatives in government and aspiring government officials must realize that our very own Constitution states that, ‘Sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanates from them.’ Government officials must be reminded that they are mere representatives of the Filipino people and that their obligation is to the Filipino people and not to the Catholic Church and its bishops who are against the passage of the RH bill into law. Government officials must respect plurality in our society. They must uphold access to reproductive health information and health care services and give primary importance to a person’s right to reproductive self-determination. Fundamentalist public officials who restrict access to information and health care services do not deserve any place in governance,” Atty. Padilla added.


For a copy of the SWS survey, see www.sws.org.ph.

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[1] The Philippine-based Task Force CEDAW Inquiry led by EnGendeRights and WomenLead, the Center for Reproductive Rights and International Women’s Rights Action Watch, Asia-Pacific (IWRAW-AP), have submitted a total of three official requests for inquiry for consideration of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW Committee) to investigate discrimination and other treaty violations resulting from the EO.

The initial request for inquiry, dated June 2, 2008, asserted that the EO violates Articles 2, 3, 5, 10, 11, 12, and 16, and that the state is responsible for such violations. The subsequent requests, also sent by the Task Force CEDAW Inquiry, dated October 27, 2008, and April 22, 2009, highlight further violations by the Philippine government. In addition, the subsequent requests for inquiry discuss the controversial Reproductive Health Bill, which present Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim does not support.

The Philippine-based Task Force CEDAW Inquiry consists of twenty members: EnGendeRights (co-convenor; see http://www.engenderights.org), WomenLEAD (co-convenor); Alternative Law Groups (ALG); Democratic Socialist Women of the Philippines (DSWP); Family Planning Organization of the Philippines (FPOP); Health Action Information Network (HAIN); Health & Development Initiatives Institute, Inc. (HDII); Institute for Social Studies and Action, Philippines (ISSA); Kapisanan ng mga Kamag-anak ng Migranteng Manggagawang Pilipino, Inc (KAKAMMPI); MAKALAYA; Philippine Legislators' Committee on Population and Development (PLCPD); Philippine NGO Council on Population, Health and Welfare, Inc., ( PNGOC ); Population Services Pilipinas, Inc. (PSPI); Sentro ng Alternatibong Lingap Panlegal/Alternative Legal Assistance Center (SALIGAN-ALAC); Save the Children USA-Philippines Country Office; The Forum for Family Planning and Development, Inc.; Woman Health Philippines; Women’s Crisis Center; Women’s Legal Bureau (WLB); Women’s Media Circle Foundation, Inc.

[2] On March 27, 2009, the Philippine-based Task Force CEDAW Inquiry led by EnGendeRights and WomenLead, the Center for Reproductive Rights and International Women’s Rights Action Watch, Asia-Pacific (IWRAW-AP), submitted a request to six United Nations Special Rapporteurs (UNSRs) requesting for an Urgent Appeal to be transmitted to the Philippine government and seeking a fact-finding country visit to investigate reproductive rights violations related to Manila City Executive Order 003 (“EO 003”). The goal in submitting the request was to draw the UNSRs attention to the grave violations perpetrated in Manila City by the Philippine government against women and their families.

The request for an Urgent Appeal was submitted to six UN Special Rapporteurs, namely, health, violence against women, education, human rights defenders, freedom of religion or belief, and the Independent Expert on extreme poverty.
[3] Unmet need for family planning is defined as the percentage of currently married women who either do not want any more children or want to wait before having their next birth, but are not using any method of family planning.
[4] UNFPA says that for every 500,000 people there should be at lea st 4 facilities offering Basic Emergency Obstetric Care (BEmOC) and for every 500,000 people there should be at lea st 1 facility offering Comprehensive Emergency Obstetric Care (CEmOC) which should be appropriately distributed.

[5] Infant mortality is the probability of dying before the first birthday while under-five mortality is the probability of dying between birth and fifth birthday.
[6] Singh S et al., Unintended Pregnancy and Induced Abortion in the Philippines : Causes and Consequences, New York : Guttmacher Institute, 2006.

[7] If you compare the Philippine maternal mortality ratio with other countries, you would see the effects of access to reproductive health information and services. The 2008 maternal mortality ratio in other countries are, as follows: 11 in US (with modern method contraceptive prevalence rate of 68%), 7 in Canada, 4 in Spain (with modern method contraceptive prevalence rate of 62%), 3 in Italy, 6 in Japan, 14 in South Korea, 14 in Singapore (with modern method contraceptive prevalence rate of 53%). Across Europe, with the exception of Albania , Romania , and Estonia , the maternal mortality ratio is below 15.

Karapatan: Rights-Based Sexual and Reproductive Health Information and Services for Filipinos

The project “Karapatan: Rights-Based Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) Information and Services for Filipinos (KRIS)- VPHCS,” also called as the “Yo! Lead or Youth on the Lead” is a leadership program for youth–initiated adolescent reproductive health advocacy and services in the provinces of Cebu, Bohol and Negros Occidental, Philippines that aims to promote increased practice of healthy reproductive and sexual health (RSH) behaviors among the youth.

Now on its fourth and last year, the project has remarkably harnessed the potentials of the Visayan youth to own and develop a reproductive health project that responds to their very own issues and concerns.

The project worked in partnership with 29 youth organizations in selected schools and communities in the three provinces in providing information and access to youth-friendly reproductive health services and developing leadership and life skills crucial to them.

Funded by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), the project was born in 2006 to address the sexual and reproductive health (SRH) problems and concerns of the youth by providing youth -initiated adolescent reproductive health advocacy and services. Teen-age pregnancies, sexually-transmitted diseases and infections, unsafe abortions and cases of violence, among other problems, continue to affect the youth and need to be addressed by all sectors of our society, including the youth themselves.

The project strived to increase the awareness and practice of healthy SRH behaviors and reproductive rights among the youth in the project areas. It also aimed to increase access to, and utilization of rights-based SRH services for the youth.

The project has harnessed the leadership and initiatives of its 29 partner youth organizations in different schools and communities in Cebu, Bohol and Negros Occidental to design and implement projects that provided sexuality education and SRH services to vulnerable youth populations in their schools and localities.

The project trained and mentored leaders and peer educators of these organizations, 20 of which are community-based and nine are school-based, and provided small grants for their projects on SRH information, advocacy and services.

From July 2006 to December 2009, the project has more than a hundred youth leaders and peer educators from schools and communities in the three provinces knowledgeable on SRH issues, effective communication, project management, and leadership development. Through various worthwhile activities and experiences including needs assessments, focused group discussions, trainings on leadership and reproductive health, youth camps, peer educators’ trainings and other educational gatherings, all youth organizations have tremendously enhanced the awareness and practice of safe sexual and reproductive health behaviors, promoted reproductive rights, and increased access to and utilization of rights-based SRH services among their youth populace.

On December 1, 2008, the Youth for Rights Network (Y4R) was launched as a network of the youth organizations. It has engaged in advocacy activities, particularly innovative and creative activities and projects to address particular concerns and needs of the youth especially in reproductive health. Through the programs crafted by the network, it has produced capable, productive and pro-active members of the community.

The project shows that the youth themselves must be empowered to recognize and act upon their needs in order to sustain successful youth SRH programs. However, such programs can work much better when the youth leaders receive inputs on technical concerns and leadership and are supported by a network of adults and services that meet their needs. The project indeed is working towards this end.