The Department of Health (DOH) assured Filipino couples that it could cover their contraceptive needs for the entire year despite a budget cut, but warned that supply would be “critical” in the first two quarters of 2017.
Health Secretary Janette Garin said the DOH would work to realign some of its savings at the end of the year to prevent a “stockout” of family planning commodities in the first six months of 2017.
A stockout of birth control supplies would have a huge impact on poor young mothers who have been relying on contraceptives provided by barangay health centers to help them space their children, she said.
“The cut should not happen again in the 2017 budget,” said Garin, one of the authors of the reproductive health law.
The bicameral conference committee had slashed P1 billion originally earmarked to cover the free provision of contraceptives from the P3.2-billion allocation for the DOH’s “Family Health and Responsible Parenting” line item this year. Jocelyn R. Uy