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RH Debate has Become a Mind Game, The 63rd Human Rights Day has Passed and House Passes Bill..

Posted on December 24th By vigie llorin, vince crisostomo and pamela heisey

RH Debate has Become a Mind Game, Whoever Winks Loses, says RH Proponent

Amid various ploys and delaying tactics orchestrated by some anti Reproductive Health (RH) bill opponents, a leading RH proponent said that the debate in the Senate has become a mind game and that whoever winks loses.

Ramon San Pascual, Executive Director of the Philippine Legislators Committee on Population and Development Foundation, Inc. (PLCPD) raised this point following Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile’s statement that if Senator Pia Cayetano pushes through with her motion to end the interpellations, the motion will kill the RH bill.

“Just like in a game of poker, the Senate President is bluffing,” San Pascual said.  “The motion is only to end the period of interpellations, meaning the Senators are going to vote in favor or against ending the interpellations,” he said.  “If they voted on not ending it, then the interpellations will continue, he added.  “They will not vote on the passage of the bill yet,” he stressed.

According to him, it is very sad that the Senate President and Majority Floor Leader Tito Sotto, who leads the anti-RH lawmakers in the Senate, are the ones blocking the bill.  “Instead of doing their job to allow the democratic process of voting on a proposed measure, Senate leaders themselves are not only doing the opposite but are twisting the truth to serve their purpose,” San Pascual laments.

“Bluffing is always deceitful and that is the game they play on RH bill,” he said. “First, there are no more 10 interpellators in the Senate as being claimed by Enrile.  Sen. Loren Legarda is the only one who expressed willingness to interpellate.  Senators Sotto, Lacson, Lapid, Osmena, Recto and Enrile have already substantially interpellated” San Pascual said.

“Second, there are no new questions being raised, all issues have been repeatedly asked. In fact, most of the senators are getting tired of repetitive questions that they themselves also want to put the RH bill to a vote,” he added.

San Pascual stressed, “it is only the very few loyal lackeys of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) in Congress who want to have the bill debated to no end.  To them, victory is when the RH bill is not decided through a vote.  To us advocates, such a strange policy posture is the height of irresponsibility and cowardice.”

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The 63rd Human Rights Day has Passed, the Right to Life of Many Affected by HIV Remains in Peril

Bangkok, 12 December 2011. The United Nations (UN) and many governments globally marked the 63rdanniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) on December 10, 2011.  However, due to the lack of funding to support the treatment that keeps many PLHIV alive and essential prevention services to protect vulnerable populations from contracting HIV.  Those of us representing the key affected populations of HIV still have difficulty attaining the most fundamental of all rights enshrined in the UDHR ‘s article 3: everyone has right to life,

Without treatment and prevention services, the right to life for people living with HIV/AIDS has no practical reality and celebrating Human Rights day makes little sense.

Last June, the UN General Assembly agreed on ambitious new targets for 2015 including 15 million people on treatment, a 50% reduction in new sexually-transmitted HIV infections and the elimination of mother-to-child HIV transmission. However, a mere six months later, those same member states have broken their promise. Two weeks ago, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (TGF), one of the most important international HIV and AIDS funding mechanisms, announced it was cancelling its upcoming round of new grant making and would make no new grants until 2014.  TGF has created a Transitional Funding Mechanism to provide “emergency relief to current recipients who will run out of money before 2014”, rather than the planned round of new funding. With these cuts, meeting the 2015 targets will not be possible.

TGF is funded mainly by national governments, but also receives money from large organizations, individuals and private sector partnerships. The Global Fund Board has reported that $2.2 billion is outstanding in unpaid donor pledges and they are facing a funding deficit of $6 billion. On 22 November 2011, the board made the difficult decision to put emergency funding measures in place.

The Transitional Funding Mechanism will provide funding for the “continuation of essential prevention, treatment and/or care services currently financed by the Global Fund” (Global Fund). Country applicants will have to “demonstrate that there are no alternative sources of funding available to fund the activities proposed” (Global Fund) and fulfill the new eligibility criteria. There will be no scope for new applicant countries to apply or for scale up or improvements in HIV treatment to be funded.

The impact of reduced funding for countries reliant on TGF to finance national HIV, TB and Malaria programmes will be considerable.

Do not allow the lives of key affected populations‘ to become a silent casualty of the global financial downturn. Our lives are not cheap, they mean significantly more than just money!  We expect health to be prioritised over wars, banks, military and lavish politics.

Those of us who attended the December 7-8 Making Global Fund Money Work for Communities: Community Partnership Consultation in Pattaya, Thailand, are extremely concerned over the governments and donors cutting back on already insufficient HIV treatment and care programmes. We, the undersigned, call on all governments and donors not to cut funds to HIV/AIDS interventions from the scale that is needed and to keep their promises.

Tags: HR-RH

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