ANGARA TO DOH, LGUs: ACCELERATE EFFORTS ON MATERNAL AND NEWBORN DEATHS PREVENTION

Senator Edgardo J. Angara today filed a resolution directing Senate Committees on Health and Demography and Local Government to conduct a joint inquiry on the efforts of the Department of Health and LGUs to prevent maternal and newborn deaths.

"The country's maternal mortality ratio (MMR) has not declined since 1990s. This despite the Philippines being a signatory of the Millennium Declaration," said Angara, author of the National Health Insurance System or the Philhealth.

One of the targets of the Millennium Development Goal is the reduction of maternal mortality. However, the 1998 National Demographic Health Survey placed the Philippines' MMR at about 172/100,000 live births. While the 2006 Family Planning survey estimates that MMR is 162/100,000 live births.

"The drop of ten points is insignificant considering the difficulties of measuring MMR in the country," Angara pointed out. Available data shows that only 25% of the causes of maternal deaths have been identified.

"This abysmal lack of data reveals a seeming indifference to and a profound lack of understanding of the problems that lead to maternal deaths," Angara lamented.

"Consequently maternal deaths constitute a grey area with several unknowns that could hardly be dealt with through policies and programs," he expressed.

DOH for its part implemented the Women's Health and Safe Motherhood Program funded by grants and loans from the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, AusAID, European Commission and Kreditanstalt Fur Wiederaufbau.

"However, DOH has not evaluated the Program to assess lesions that could be learned and to determine expenditures and results of the program," Angara pointed out.

The resolution aims to call on the DOH to report on the expenditure, results and status of the Women's Health and Safe Motherhood Program. It will likewise direct DOH to describe the monitoring process of the Department in tracking LGU's implementation of the Program.