The Department of Health (DOH) has lost a significant part of its budget intended for the purchase of condoms and other types of contraceptives for next year.
Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III said lawmakers saw the motive behind the purported strategy to set aside budget for contraceptives to make up for the delay in the passage of a reproductive health (RH) law.
"Parang pinapaikutan kami, (They were taking us for a ride,)" he told the Inquirer in a phone interview.
'Leveraging services'
Groups opposed to the RH bill are also critical of the supposed tactic to introduce a similar measure in local governments in the form of ordinances.
In reconciling the Senate's and House of Representatives' versions of the P1.645-trillion national budget, the bicameral conference committee agreed to cut P200 million from the DOH's P880-million allocation for "leveraging services" and purchase of contraceptives, according to Sotto.
The senator said the P200-million budget would now be spent on the maintenance and other operating expenses of state universities and colleges.
The remaining P680 million was allocated solely for "family health, responsible parenting and maternal care." Sotto said the new item meant that the DOH could not use it to buy condoms and other contraceptives.
"If they use it for contraceptives, we will question them next year. They would have a lot of explaining to do," he said.
Sotto said the new allocation would include prenatal care, immunization, information campaign to help curb maternal death and infant mortality, and other community-based health programs.
Preservation of life
"If you notice, this allocation is intended purely for the preservation of life," he said.
Going into the conference committee, senators drastically reduced the DOH's initial P880-million budget for contraceptives, leaving only P8 million to be used exclusively for condoms.
But even the P8-million allocation was lost during the deliberations.
Sotto, who was part of the bicam committee, said the DOH was again asked to explain where exactly it intended to spend P880 million. He said he presented the written explanation to Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile who suggested that all spending on contraceptives be stricken off the 2011 budget.
Sotto said the new proposal encountered no major difficulty with the House panel, which included Minority Leader Edcel Lagman, chief proponent of the RH bill.
"My thesis was strong--the bicam was not the venue for debates on the RH bill," he said
