The immediate and full implementation of the Reproductive Health Law was energized by Executive Order (EO) No. 12 which was signed by President Rodrigo Duterte on 09 January 2017 and made effective immediately.

The EO is projected to attain and sustain “zero unmet need for modern family planning” by 2018 for poor families.

Four years after the enactment of the RH Law on 21 December 2012 and almost three years after it was on the whole declared constitutional by the Supreme Court on 08 April 2014, the present data on unmet need for contraceptives is still unacceptably high, particularly in the marginalized sectors.

President Duterte’s EO is in direct contrast with the Supreme Court’s earlier temporary restraining order (TRO) and subsequent decision dated 24 August 2016, which is under reconsideration, halting the certification and re-certification of contraceptive products and devices by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) pending FDA’s undertaking a tedious quasi-judicial process instead of the traditional summary administrative process on certification and re-certification.

If the Supreme Court does not reverse soonest its decision and takes a longer time in resolving the motion for reconsideration filed by the Office of the Solicitor General, the supply of modern contraceptives will dry up by 2018.

Funding for the EO is assured when the Department of Budget and Management was authorized to “realign and augment appropriations” to support the full implementation of the RH Law this year, with the funding requirements in subsequent years to be included in the annual General Appropriations Acts.

The Department of Education was also directed to “implement a gender-sensitive and rights-based comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) in the school curriculum”, without distinction with respect to public and private schools.

EDCEL C. LAGMAN