Garin, Lagman cited for RH effort

MANILA, Philippines – Health Secretary Janette Garin and former Albay congressman Edcel Lagman were conferred the Excellence in Leadership for Family Planning (EXCELL) Award for the individual and team level in recognition of their vital contributions to the passage of the Reproductive Health (RH) Law.

The award was presented to Garin and Lagman at the closing ceremonies of the 4th International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP) in Bali, Indonesia on Jan. 28.

The two were selected from almost 200 nominations that the ICFP organizers received from all over the world.

Lagman underscored that “this EXCELL award gives much impetus to the RH advocates in the Philippines to relentlessly continue the good fight, not to lower their guard and never to rest on their laurels.”

Jose Rimon II, chairperson of the ICFP international steering committee,  said EXCELL Awards recognize countries, organizations/facilities, and individuals/teams “who have made significant contributions to the family planning field, and whose leadership and work deserve to be highlighted and used to inspire meaningful dialogue within the community.”

Garin and Lagman were RH champions during their terms in Congress as they defended the RH bill during long, tedious and often acrimonious plenary debates, he said.

Lagman is also widely credited for shepherding the RH bill through the legislative mill until it finally became Republic Act 10354 or the “Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012.”

Garin is continuing her RH advocacy as secretary of the Department of Health.

It took Congress 15 years to pass the RH Law and have it declared constitutional by the Supreme Court.

Garin, a medical doctor, also recalled that “when we were fighting to pass the RH Law, I was called an abortionist.”

“There were pictures of me burning in hell. I wish I could be seen (instead) as an angel for reproductive health.”

Lagman said while they have won in the legislature and the highest court, these are the same institutions – Congress and the Supreme Court – which are being used by opponents of the RH Law to derail its implementation.

“Congress, particularly two senators, engineered the slashing of P1 billion from the budget for contraceptives, while the Supreme Court has issued a continuing, albeit temporary, injunction prohibiting the government from purchasing and distributing Implanon and Implanon NXT, which are among the two most popular contraceptive implants,” he said.          – Paolo Romero

“These adverse developments are lamentable because central to the implementation of the RH Law is the availability of family planning supplies, particularly to marginalized acceptors in the poorest quintile,” he said.

The substantial budget cut has severely impaired government’s capacity to provide family planning supplies to millions of acceptors, Garin said.

The 4th ICFP was co-hosted by National Family Planning Coordinating Board of Indonesia and the Bill and Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

It brought together about 3,000 researchers, program managers, policymakers and RH advocates from around the world to share their best research and practices and to use their knowledge to expand access to family planning services.