Press Release
January 18, 2009

Pia: Ten mothers die every day while giving birth in RP

About ten Filipino mothers die every day while giving birth, and this is said to be one of the worst maternal mortality rates in Southeast Asia. On the other hand, only seven of every ten births in the country are attended to by a skilled health professional.

At a glance, these numbers reflect the poor state of maternal health in the country, one in a number of failing marks that the Philippines has registered so far while pursuing its commitments to the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals or MDGs.

"We should view maternal mortality as a social gauge on the status of women in their respective countries, including their access to health care and adequacy of the public health system to respond to their needs," said Senator Pia S. Cayetano, expounding on the significance of the data.

"Many of these mothers die from inadequate prenatal and postnatal care, either because they did not have access to, or could not afford, these services, or perhaps because they lacked the proper information," she continued.

The MDGs are a set of eight time-bound, concrete and specific targets aimed at significantly reducing, if not decisively eradicating poverty, by the year 2015. These targets were set in September 2000 by 189 UN member-countries, including the Philippines, in adopting the UN Millennium Declaration.

"Nearly a decade since the MDGs were laid down, and with only six years to go before the 2015 deadline, how is the Philippines really faring in realizing its own MDGs? Has the government been able to effectively integrate and prioritize the MDGs in its national budget and programs?"

Cayetano, together with the United Nations Millennium Campaign and the United Nations System in the Philippines, will attempt to answer these questions in an experts' forum and exhibit on the MDGs to be held at the Philippine Senate on Tuesday, January 20.

The lady senator will be joined by Suneeta Mukherjee, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Country Representative and Salil Shetty, Global Director of the UN Millennium Campaign, in discussing the status and proposing strategies to meet the MDGs.

Currently the president of the Committee of Women Parliamentarians of the Geneva-based Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), Cayetano has actively taken up the MDGs in senate deliberations on the national budget and other legislative measures, and in linking with other legislators here and abroad.

In the proposed P1.415-trillion national government budget for 2009, Cayetano has been pushing for the inclusion of a Rural Midwives Placement Program to help improve public health services on pre-natal care and maternal delivery.

Cayetano has also filed Senate Resolution No. 376, which inquires on the status of the MDGs in the country, specifically on improving maternal and child health and eradicating diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria.

The January 20 forum will bring together experts from various sectors in a discussion of the MDGs, focusing on maternal health and universal primary education -- two indicators which experts say the country is unlikely to meet by 2015.

The other six goals under the UN Millennium Declaration are: eradication of extreme poverty and hunger; promotion gender equality and women empowerment; reduction of child mortality; combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; environmental sustainability; and developing a global partnership for development.

News Latest News Feed