Manila city council urged to revoke executive order on family planning

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) is asking the City Council of Manila to revoke an executive order that declared total commitment and support to only natural family planning methods.

This developed after a group of women in Manila reportedly sought the assistance of the CHR concerning the issuance of such an EO by the local government of Manila.

“The City Council of Manila should immediately revoke EO 003, and ensure that artificial birth control devices, including birth control pills and injectables be made available to all adult citizens who are residents within its jurisdiction, in health centers and hospitals,” said a report signed by CHR Chairperson Loretta Ann Rosales.

Further, the CHR recommended for the City of Manila to encourage private healthcare providers, hospitals and health centers, to make available for purchase, birth control pills, condoms, injectables and intra-uterine device.

Rosales said, “The City of Manila should issue an apology to the group, to all women and men alike who have been denied access to facilities and services as a result of the EO, and to the children of the families affected.

The group told Rosales that since the issuance of EO 003, there has been no procurement of products and services in city health centers and hospitals which are not in the category of natural family planning method.

The women petitioners said this action of the local government and its results are contested as discriminatory under the normative standards of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), in violation of the various provisions found in the 1987 Constitution, and the Magna Carta for Women of 2009.

According to the CHR, EO 003, “Declaring Total Commitment and Support to the Responsible Parenthood Movement in the City of Manila and Enunciating Policy Declaration in Pursuit Thereof” was issued by former city mayor Lito Atienza on Feb. 29, 2000.

The CHR said “all local government units are encouraged to develop or strengthen advocacy programs on reproductive and sexual health rights, and make available in health centers or municipal health clinics, birth control pills, condoms, injectables and intra-uterine device.”

“LGUs are likewise advised to develop or strengthen human-rights education particularly on the rights of women in the CEDAW, for all their constituents,” the commission said.

Rosales said, “By the issuance of EO 003, the City of Manila, an instrumentality and essential element of the state, committed clear breaches of CEDAW obligation. By adopting an ordinance that limits the choice to natural birth control methods, it reneged on the obligation to protect health including the safeguarding of the function of reproduction, to provide healthcare and enable women to access services related to family planning, and to allow women to decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of children.