SC: Hands off RH | Inquirer Opinion

see  -  SC: Hands off RH | Inquirer Opinion


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Commentary

SC: Hands off RH

By Oscar Franklin Tan
Philippine Daily Inquirer

10:37 pm | Sunday, January 20th, 2013

 19 651 609

After Manny Pacquiao’s loss by decision to Tim Bradley, “he marched over to Bradley’s father and told him, ‘Your son is going to be a great champ’.” After the Reproductive Health Law was signed, critics immediately challenged it before the Supreme Court.

Filipinos would be the first to protest had Mommy Dionisia rushed into the ring to whack Bradley with an oversized Hermes Birkin. But why is it acceptable that justices might troop to the Senate to raise Sen. Tito Sotto’s plagiarizing hand in belated victory?

The anti-RH petitions are from another planet, legally speaking. They invoke ambiguous concepts: “ideals,” “culture” and “right to life” as undefined judicial claims against our elected legislators. Proponents continue to claim an entitlement to impose their definition of “morality” as law. Were we to criminalize the alleged destruction of “ideals,” “culture” and “right to life,” our laws would be so vague that teenage Cebuanas whose bikini photos were uploaded to Facebook would be on death row.

But the gobbledygook is beside the point. The RH bill raised political issues that needed to be resolved in democratic process. And resolved in democratic process they were. Who would have thought that, at the second reading’s dénouement, Filipinos would patiently watch congressmen explain their votes to a man, down to Rep. Em Aglipay’s barbaric yawp: “I’m not against life. I’m against ignorance.” Such political maturity leaves someone who stood with the crowds at Edsa II, after the aborted Estrada trial, in hopeful awe.

During the Corona impeachment, we said that seeing it through without another Edsa would be a triumph in itself. The Senate having redeemed itself, we should value our institutions separate from the outcomes they generate. Had the RH Law been blocked, it would be equally obnoxious had Sen. Pia Cayetano made the less outlandish claim that access to reproductive health measures is a fundamental human right judicially demandable from the Court. Whether one is pro- or anti-Carlos Celdran, we should all be insulted by the idea that 14 years of meticulous democratic process is inferior to the vaguest of claims before our unelected Supreme Court.

Justices know US Justice Felix Frankfurter’s classic phrase: “Courts ought not to enter this political thicket,” because they are inevitably stung. Yale Professor Alexander Bickel famously criticized judicial review as having “a tendency over time to seriously weaken the democratic process” because “the correction of legislative mistakes comes from the outside, and the people thus lose the political experience, and the education and stimulus that come from fighting the question out in the ordinary way, and correcting their own errors.” Thus should the Court not be the last refuge of a loser in a political arena.

There are certainly valid judicial questions: When may a health worker validly refuse to join health measures due to a religious objection? To what extent can law overlap with a parent’s right to raise a child? Does a specific contraceptive induce abortion, violating the Constitution? Legal standards will govern these should a concrete court case arise (and none has, given that the RH Law is not even effective yet). The RH Law’s broader framework, however, raises questions so fundamental that these can only be judged by the majority consent that is the crux of democracy. That these questions have so polarized us implies that the disgruntled would respect nothing less.

It is time to question our haste in running to the Supreme Court every single time.

The Court issued a TRO against the anticybercrime law even before an actual cyberlibel case. The TRO came even as senators expressed willingness to amend the law; sponsor Sen. Ed Angara even gamely said so before Boy Abunda. The TRO discouraged amendments’ consideration given a looming Supreme Court decision. More importantly, it cooled the fervor of citizens’ debates, robbing those who ardently blacked out their Facebook profiles the opportunity to realize they have no idea what they are protesting against—down to the fact that cyberlibel was punishable before the anticybercrime law.

The role we grant the Supreme Court is critical to divorce debates. The Constitution states: “Marriage, as an inviolable social institution, is the foundation of the family and shall be protected by the State.” Antis might try to have divorce declared unconstitutional in a technical knockout even before Round 1. Is it more democratic, however, to assert that legislators and citizens themselves must interpret the Constitution’s motherhood statements on marriage? Is it more democratic for women from all walks to speak instead of unelected justices ruling based on musty law books?

The “Coronavela” ended the myth of the Supreme Court’s infallibility, yet we barely grasp our justices’ descent from godhood. It is time for us to reclaim our democracy’s most fundamental questions for ourselves. It is time to assert that Congress is an appropriate ring in which to define abstractions such as “ideals,” “culture” and the “right to life,” and that a fight card with Harvard lawyers from Rep. Sonny Angara to Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile himself compares to one with a Davide, a Puno or a Carpio. It is time to ask political minorities to follow the Pacquiao example of gamely asking for a rematch instead of seeking hollow victories outside the ring.

Besides, our democracy can always use more Em Aglipay quotes and Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago’s beautiful legs challenges.

Oscar Franklin Tan (facebook.com/OscarFranklinTan, Twitter @oscarfbtan) teaches Constitutional Law in the University of the East. His 2012 article “Guarding the Guardians” (86 PHIL. L.J. 523) outlines the overlooked sheer breadth of Supreme Court power.

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Chinese ‘occupation’ of Bajo de Masinloc could reduce PH territorial waters by 38 percent | ABS-CBN News

see  -  Chinese ‘occupation’ of Bajo de Masinloc could reduce PH territorial waters by 38 percent | ABS-CBN News


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Chinese ‘occupation’ of Bajo de Masinloc could reduce PH territorial waters by 38 percent

By Ellen Tordesillas, VERA Files

Posted at 01/21/2013 12:15 AM | Updated as of 01/21/2013 12:10 AM

(First of two parts)
The Philippines is at a loss over China’s declaration its ships will stay permanently in Bajo de Masinloc, a declaration some experts say could lead to the Philippines losing 38 percent of its territorial waters.
Bajo de Masinloc, a triangular-shaped coral reef formation that has several rocks encircling a lagoon, is located 124 nautical miles west of Masinloc town in Zambales in the northwestern part of the Philippines.
“The shoal is under virtual occupation by China,” said former foreign undersecretary and former Philippine Permanent Representative to the United Nations Lauro Baja.
Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario confirmed this, saying, “In a subministerial consultation, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Fu Ying had said to our people that China’s presence was permanent and they had no intention of withdrawing their ships from the vicinity of Bajo de Masinloc.”
The National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA) says Bajo de Masinloc has an area of about 120 square kilometers. It is also referred to as Panatag (calm in Pilipino) by fishermen who seek refuge in the area during stormy weather.
Its international name is Scarborough shoal after the tea-carrying British boat Scarborough which sank in the vicinity in 1784. China also claims ownership of the shoal which is 467 nautical miles away from its mainland, and refers to it as Huangyan Island.
Republic Act 9522, which defines the country’s archipelagic baseline, includes Bajo de Masinloc as part of Philippine territory. The law classifies it as a regime of islands under Art. 121 of the Law of the Sea Convention (LOSC), which means it generates its own territorial sea, exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and continental shelf.

Chinese Surveillance Ships sighted

Under UNCLOS, “an island is a naturally formed area of land, surrounded by water, which is above water at high tide.”
An island generates its own maritime regimes, which are 12 nautical miles (nm) for territorial sea, 24 nm for contiguous zone, 200 nm for EEZ and 200 nm continental shelf.
Under this definition, the Chinese claim over Baja de Masinloc means the Philippines risks losing not only the 120-square-kilometer strategically vital reef formation but also some 494,000 square kilometers EEZ, representing 38 per cent of the country’s EEZ.
One of the Philippines’ options to protest the Chinese encroachment is going to the United Nations International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), the arbitration arm of UNCLOS, of which the Philippines and China are signatories.
Legal experts say the Philippines can ask the ITLOS, which does not deal with territorial disputes, to declare Bajo de Masinloc as a rock rather than an island.
UNCLOS said, “Rocks which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own shall have no exclusive economic zone or continental shelf.”
Retired Philippine Navy Commodore Rex Robles, who has been to the area a few times for gunnery practice, declares that “Panatag shoal is a rock.”
“It cannot support human life. It is not an island,” he concludes.
Lawyer Romel Bagares, executive director of Center for International Law (Philippines), said RA 9522 “does not actually specify whether Bajo de Masinloc consists just of uninhabitable rocks or is capable of economic life pursuant to Art 121 of the UNCLOS. This could be one way of arguing ITLOS has jurisdiction, especially as to the interpretation of provisions. It's a pragmatic approach, no doubt.”
What is obvious, Bagares said, is that RA 9522 assumes that the shoal is part of Philippine territory in the fullest sense of the term.
Del Rosario said, “To the extent that their three ships are within our exclusive economic zone, this is in gross violation of the DOC and UNCLOS.”
DOC is the Declaration of Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea signed in 2002 by members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, four of them part claimants to islands in the South China Sea, and China. UNCLOS is the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Baja said, “When our ships withdrew from Bajo de Masinloc in June and now (we) could not access the area, the shoal became under virtual occupation by China. “
Baja, who drafted the DOC with Malaysia’s Abdul Kadir, also said Chinese occupation of the disputed shoal has changed the status quo, contrary to the DOC.
The DOC states: “The Parties undertake to exercise self-restraint in the conduct of activities that would complicate or escalate disputes and affect peace and stability including, among others, refraining from action of inhabiting on the presently uninhabited islands, reefs, shoals, cays, and other features and to handle their differences in a constructive manner.”
Baja said China is exercising what the International Court of Justice (ICJ) calls “effectivités.” “This is the basis of the Court’s decision on the Ligatan Sipadan case where the court awarded the area to Malaysia over Indonesia. Also the same principle in the case between Chile and Peru and between Nicaragua and Guatemala,” he said.
In 2002, the ICJ awarded sovereignty over Pulau Ligitan and Pulau Sipadan, two very small islands located in the Celebes Sea, off the northeast coast of the island of Borneo, to Malaysia against Indonesia giving weight to the former’s actual and continued exercise of authority over the islands.
Baja said, “We must act and interact before we lose the territory by default and/or estoppel.”
Seven months after China’s occupation of Bajo de Masinloc, the Philippines is still “reviewing” its options.

Two Chinese vessels at Scarborough Shoal

Asked about the Philippines’ response to China’s declaration it has no intentions of pulling out their ships from Panatag shoal, Del Rosario said, “We are reviewing all our options in accordance with our three track approach encompassing the political, legal and diplomatic means.”
President Benigno Aquino III has refused to discuss publicly the Philippine efforts on Bajo de Masinloc because he said doing so would be “giving the other side a preview of everything that we will do.”
He said, though, in October at a forum by the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines that the matter “is still being studied by our consultants.”
Aquino added, “There are several law firms that we are consulting, conversant and very well thought of and experts in international law, to precisely chart the course of how we will utilize the legal procedures in international law to advance our claims.”
Experts point to two options available to the Philippines: the military option—which is not really an option considering the inferior state of the Philippine Navy compared with China’s naval might—and the legal option.
(To be continued)
(VERA Files is put out by veteran journalists taking a deeper look at current issues. Vera is Latin for “true.”)

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5 Effective Ways to Cut Law Firm Expenses - Insider Tips - Strategist

see  -  5 Effective Ways to Cut Law Firm Expenses - Insider Tips - Strategist


PHL lawyers should learn from this article on how to cut their operating costs.


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5 Effective Ways to Cut Law Firm Expenses

By Andrew Lu on January 15, 2013 11:20 AM | No TrackBacks

There are two ways to increase your profits when running a law firm. The first, and most obvious method, is to bring in more business. The second method is to cut law firm expenses.

We've written about rainmaking and trying to bring in more business on several occasions. You can read about it here, here, and here.

In this post, we focus on how you can grow your bottom line by cutting down on expenses. Here are five tips:

1. Go Digital. Paper costs money. Toner costs money. Printers and printer maintenance cost even more. If you go paperless, you'll save a lot of money. Plus, saving every document in a digital format may help you become better organized as you avoid cluttering your office with boxes of old documents. 
2. Rethink Your Staffing Needs. It's really great to have a full staff complete with a legal secretary, paralegal, assistants, and even associates under you. You'll feel like you're really running an office. But think about how much you'll have to pay for each of these employees. And rethink whether you really need so much support. 
3. Rethink Your Office. Similar to having a full legal office, think about whether you even need an office in the first place. Sometimes an office can be beneficial such as having a downtown location and making your firm look more professional. But more and more lawyers are turning to home offices, and running an office out of your home may not be such a negative any more.
4. Don't Mistake Yourself for a Techie. A lawyer is not a software engineer. A lawyer isn't even an 18-year-old college student. Rarely does a lawyer's work justify racing to get the latest Apple product or updating your laptop every year. If your two-year-old computer does the job, think about keeping it.
5. DIY. If the courthouse is nearby, you may want to swing by during your lunch break to drop off documents instead of hiring a courier. If you have down time, consider typing your own documents instead of hiring a secretary. There are plenty of tasks that a busy lawyer outsources. But if you are not really that busy, you may want to perform these yourself. x x x."

Opening UP Philippine Legal PROFESSION | The Manila Bulletin Newspaper Online

see  -  Opening UP Philippine Legal PROFESSION | The Manila Bulletin Newspaper Online


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Opening UP Philippine Legal PROFESSION

By SEN. Edgardo J. Angara

January 19, 2013, 8:17pm

LAST week, I visited Davao City to keynote the 14th National Lawyers’ Convention and 40th Founding Anniversary of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP).

 There, I underscored that major changes are posing challenges – as well as providing new opportunities – in the realms of law practice and legal education today.

 For one, ICT is transforming many aspects of the legal profession. Research can now be more collaborative, with information easily available over the Internet. Legal libraries are no longer large physical venues lined with books, but digital spaces packed with gigabytes of information.

 Many legal services are also being outsourced, instead of conducted in-house. Firms relegate the work of researchers, paralegals, and other legal professionals to external providers – at times, oceans away from the home-country.

 The online revolution is also making legal work more mobile. Lawyers no longer meet face-to-face with their clients, but do so via online means like Skype. Some have even resorted to social media like Twitter and Facebook to reach their clients.

Financial uncertainty around the globe has also made clients more conscious of the fees they pay to law firms. To keep up, firms will have to make their workflows more efficient and their compensation models more attuned to their client’s demands.

This drive for efficiency has also pushed lawyers to innovation and specialization. With law becoming more interdisciplinary, legal professionals are tasked with creating new models to serve their client’s needs.

 Legal advice is no longer about referring back to antiquated, static libraries of information, but finding innovative interpretations of a dynamic and ever-changing body of knowledge.

 So many things are happening – new ways of communicating, new ways of charging fees on clients, new ways of expediting trial and litigation. Those things will never catch on unless we open up the Philippine legal profession.

 For starters, we must update and revise our legal education programs. Interdisciplinary and international collaboration would be a step in the right direction.

 The world’s well-known law schools have already adopted this approach. Harvard Law School and Yale Law School have long offered joint-degree programs.

So-called “Global Law Schools” have also emerged. Opportunities to study abroad are no longer part of a grant, but a component of mainstream curriculum.

 Yet, the Philippine legal profession discourages foreign entanglements. Legal scholars from foreign universities may not teach credited courses in Philippine law schools, let alone practice before our courts. Young lawyers may take their master’s degrees abroad, but this will have a negligible effect on their local practice.

 Whether we like it or not, foreign competition will come into the country, especially with the creation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in 2015. This unification and integration will be as much about the free movement of skilled labor as it is of goods and capital.

In many ways, competition is good, especially in elevating the prevailing service standards of the legal profession. If Filipino doctors are not afraid of their foreign counterparts, why should Filipino lawyers be wary of foreign lawyers?

For years, the Philippine legal profession has remained isolated from the rest of the world. In the wake of global changes, law practice in the country has to be internationalized to remain relevant.

 On one hand, the Supreme Court should consider revising the Rules of Court to allow foreign lawyers to do limited practice in the country. On the other, legal education in the country must loosen its intellectual borders and reflect how the world is becoming more globalized.

 A paradigm shift is definitely needed. Hopefully, this can be achieved under the focused leadership of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines.

Website: www.edangara.com | Email: angara.ed@gmail.com.

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‘Lawyer or liar?’

see  -  ‘Lawyer or liar?’


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‘Lawyer or liar?’

BY MARITES DAÑGUILAN VITUG
POSTED ON 01/18/2013 9:45 AM  | UPDATED 01/18/2013 10:56 AM

3 Comments

 

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Marites Dañguilan VitugIf the 3,000 lawyers or so gathered in Davao City for the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) national convention were seriously listening to the speakers, they would not run out of New Year’s resolutions.

Every two years, members of the bar from various parts of the country meet in a big way, a culmination of chapter and regional meetings and a massive networking that, this time, took place in the humongous SMX convention center here. It was also the 40th anniversary of the IBP which had its roots in the martial-law era.

To make it worth everyone’s while and to compel the lawyers to attend the sessions, the 4-day convention was made part of their mandatory continuing legal education or MCLE.

But more than the de rigueur lectures, the challenges hurled by some of the speakers should make the lawyers think hard and reflect on their work—from changing mindsets to improving public confidence in the legal profession and taking a critical view of Supreme Court decisions.

‘Don’t be parochial’

Sen Edgardo Angara, the oldest living former IBP president, urged his colleagues to undergo a mind shift and emerge from their narrow day-to-day concerns to look at what’s happening in the outside world. Lawyering, he said in his keynote speech, is undergoing a dramatic change in the context of the modern world powered by technology and globalization.

In two years (2015), the ASEAN will be one economic market, Angara pointed out, so “we should start thinking of competition not just from lawyers from Davao but from Singapore and Thailand.” As it is, the Philippines is one of the few countries in the ASEAN “where borders remain closed to foreign lawyers, universities…The Philippines does not allow tie-ups with foreign law schools.”

Angara continued: “We cannot continue to close our borders and remain parochial. If we do, we will be left behind in legal education and [in getting] a share of the legal market.”

Will the IBP take up this challenge and do its share in opening up legal education and practice in the country?

Idealist and pragmatist

Sen Alan Peter Cayetano gave a light-hearted talk spiced up with lawyer jokes to drive home the point that despite the demonizing of the legal profession, it is a noble calling where idealism and pragmatism can co-exist. In fact, he said, they should be “pragmatic idealists” as they fulfill their roles as catalysts of change and leaders of communities who “set the legal framework for society.”

“Lawyer or liar?” Cayetano asked. “It’s our choice.”

Similarly, Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno urged the lawyers to “reverse” the image of the legal profession and improve levels of confidence in the judicial profession.

“Systemic evil and injustice push you to choose wrong over right,” she said in an extemporaneous late-night speech. “Slowly, let’s return to the right path…Join me in the long journey toward legal reform.”

In the Philippines, there is no recent data or survey on how the public perceives lawyers. But we can get an idea from the US experience. A Gallup poll last year showed that lawyers in the US rated miserably low in honesty ratings. But they are not alone: “Far less than half of Americans are positive about the honesty of journalists, lawyers…all of which have honesty ratings below 25%,” the survey said.

‘Criticize us’

The most daring challenge came from the newest and youngest member of the Supreme Court, Justice Marvic Leonen, who asked the lawyers to “criticize” the Court on the substance of its decisions, how these relate to law and also “according to proper attribution.”

The last was a pointed reference to the plagiarized decision of Justice Mariano del Castillo whom Leonen, then dean of the University of the Philippines College of Law, and some members of the faculty heavily criticized and asked to resign. Leonen and Del Castillo now sit together in the Court.

In our personalistic society, this is a particularly tough challenge. What if a lawyer speaks up and disagrees with a Court decision? There’s a chance that he or she may get the ire of the Court or some of its members and lose pending or future cases.

Doing a public critique of Court decisions is not the norm in the legal academe. One senior lawyer explained to me that most of the faculty members of law schools are only part-time teachers because they are active in private practice. Apparently, it is only the UP College of Law which has full-time law professors. As such, law teachers hold back and keep their criticism of Court decisions to themselves. They are afraid to cross the justices.

The Court as nanny

There’s a structural flaw, too: all lawyers are under the supervision of the Supreme Court. This adult, 40-year old IBP, to which all lawyers belong, still has a nanny because the Constitution says so.

The IBP cannot be a truly independent organization. For one, its leadership disputes are resolved by the Court. Who then would want to displease the justices?

To be independent: this, to me, is the most pressing challenge facing the lawyers today. -Rappler.com

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Angara: PHL should open law practice to foreigners | News | GMA News Online | The Go-To Site for Filipinos Everywhere

Angara: PHL should open law practice to foreigners | News | GMA News Online | The Go-To Site for Filipinos Everywhere

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(Updated 2:46 p.m.) DAVAO CITY - Speaking before lawyers all over the country, Senator Edgardo Angara said it was about time that the Philippines opens its doors to foreign law practitioners.

 

In his speech delivered before members of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) here, Angara said the Supreme Court should revise the Rules of Court to allow foreign lawyers to do limited practice in the country.

 

"Ang message ko, you've got to change like the rest of the world. The Philippines is the only country in Asia which does not allow foreign lawyers to practice here," he said.

 

He explained that the current policy of only allowing Filipino lawyers to practice in the country is preventing the Philippines from entering into tie-ups with foreign law schools and getting experts in mergers and acquisition. 

 

"So we are definitely isolated because we are not internationalizing our legal practice.  Unless we do that, we'll be missing out on the globalization and internalization of law practice," he said.

 

"There's so many things happening -- new ways of communicating, new ways of even charging fees on clients, new ways of expediting trial and litigation. Those things we will never be able to catch on unless we open up our doors to foreign lawyers," he added.

 

He likewise said that Filipino lawyers would not be at a disadvantage with the entry of foreign practitioners.

 

"Competition, in fact, improves service and makes everybody in the profession look good to the clients and to the public so we should not be afraid of competition. Filpino doctors natin [are] not afraid of [competition] Why should we lawyers be afraid of foreign lawyers?" he said.

 

"Whether we love it or not we've got to compete with our fellow Asians in two years' time, in 2015. We'll be like the European Union, we'll be an Asean economic community," he added.

 

Despite his pronouncements, however, Angara stressed that he will not be personally pushing for the proposal.

 

"I've done my part na, I've been president of the IBP long long time ago so let the new young leadership pick it up," he said. "I think the IBP will do a great service to the profession if they put together a proposal."

Similar requests

In a separate interview, IBP national president Roan Libarios said they have been receiving similar requests from foreign Bar organizations.

 

"We have some agreements with the international organizations to come up with a mutual stance. They have already done their part so we want also the Philippines to open up," Libarios said.

 

He stressed, however, that they will only support the participation of foreign lawyers in cases concerning foreign law in the country.

 

"The IBP is now advocating for a limited opening of practice to foreign lawyers here in the Philippines but at very limited and highly regulated rules," he said.

 

"They can practice if the case involves foreign law but not when the case involves domestic Philippine law...so practically the lawyers in the Philippines will not be affected because they would only be practicing foreign law in the Philippines," he added.

 

But he said that this will still be discussed by the IBP members, after which they will give a proposal to the Supreme Court. — RSJ, GMA News

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Message of President Aquino to the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) on the occasion of their 14th National Lawyers Convention and 40th Foundation Year, January 16, 2013 | Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines

Message of President Aquino to the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) on the occasion of their 14th National Lawyers Convention and 40th Foundation Year, January 16, 2013 | Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines

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To improve the administration of justice, to elevate the standards of the legal practice, and to discharge its public responsibilities effectively—these are the ideals upon which the Integrated Bar of the Philippines was founded. In line with these principles, our Social Contract with the Filipino people necessitates that we have a justice system that is prompt, responsive, and impartial—one that serves everyone decisively and without prejudice. Remember them as you gather for this occasion, that you may answer our people’s continuing clamor for justice, change, and reform.

May this event renew your commitment as lawyers to preserve the rule of law, which places our people front and center. Let us serve the Filipino people with fidelity, credibility, and conscience to reinforce their faith in our nation and government.

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Efficient use of paper rule issued by the Supreme Court of the Philippines

see -  Supreme Court of the Philippines


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SC Establishes E-Mail Address for E-Filing and Other Requirements for Efficient Use of Paper

Posted: December 29, 2012; By Gleo Sp. Guerra

In preparation for the eventual establishment of an e-filing paperless system in the Judiciary, the Supreme Court, through its Management Information System Office, has set up the e-mail address efile@sc.judiciary.gov.ph.

This is pursuant to the Efficient Use of Paper Rule (AM No. 11-9-4-SC, November 13, 2012) which takes effect on January 1, 2013 after its publication in two newspapers of general circulation. In promulgating this Rule, the Court noted the need to cut the judicial system’s use of excessive quantities of costly paper, save the forests, avoid landslides, and mitigate the worsening effects of climate change.

E-filing, under the Rule, requires parties before the Supreme Court to submit, simultaneously with their court-bound papers, soft copies of the same and their annexes (the latter in PDF format) either by e-mail to the Court’s e-mail address or by compact disc (CD). E-filing will, initially, be ona voluntary basis for the first six months following the effectivity of the Rule. Thereafter, it shall be compulsory, unless six-month voluntary period is extended. For efficient use of paper, the Rule also requires that all pleadings, motions, and similar papers intended for the consideration of all courts and quasi-judicial bodies under the supervision of the Supreme Court must be written in single space with a one-and-a-half space between paragraphs, using an easily readable font style of the party’s choice, of 14-size font, and on a 13-inch by 8.5-inch white bond paper. The same requirements apply to  all decisions, resolutions, and orders issued by courts and quasi-judicial bodies under the administrative supervision of the Supreme Court, as well as reports submitted to the courts and transcripts of stenographic notes.

All court-bound papers to be submitted by every party shall likewise maintain a left hand margin of 1.5 inches from the edge; an upper margin of 1.2 inches from the edge; a right hand margin of one inch from the edge; and a lower margin of one inch from the edge. Every page must be consecutively numbered.

The Rule specifies the number of copies of court-bound papers in a particular court that a party is required or desires to file unless otherwise directed by the court. In the Supreme Court for instance, parties are required to file one original (properly marked) and four copies, unless the case is referred to the Court En Banc, in which event, the parties shall file 10 additional copies. For the En Banc, the parties need to submit only two sets of annexes, one attached to the original and one extra copy. For the Division, the parties need to submit also two sets of annexes, one attached to the original, as well as an extra copy. All members of the Court shall share the extra copies of annexes in the interest of economy of paper.

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Judicial affidavit rule; fiscals ask SC to postpone it for 1 year in criminal cases only.

See  -  Supreme Court of the Philippines

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SC to Take Up Prosecutors' Requestfor Deferment of the Judicial Affidavit Rule in Criminal Cases

Posted: January 2, 2012; By Gleo Sp. Guerra

Chief Justice Maria Lourdes P. A. Sereno, responding to a request from the Prosecutors’ League of the Philippines (PLP) for the deferment of the implementation of theJudicial Affidavit Rule for at least a year in criminal cases, has directed that the request be included in the agenda of the Supreme Court’s first En Banc session of the year on January 8, 2013. In its letter dated December 12, 2012, addressed to Chief Justice Sereno and the Associate Justices, the PLP cited as among the reasons for its request the heavy workloads of the prosecutors affording them “limited time to prepare judicial affidavits,”  as well as the “deficiency in the number of prosecutors” in many field offices. The PLP, composed of active and retired prosecutors, also asked for the creation of an ad hoc Committee to revisit the Rule’s provisions.

The Rule, which is meant to address the twin problems of case congestion and delay in the resolution of cases, requires the compulsory use of judicial affidavits of witnesses in lieu of their direct testimonies in all first-level (except as to small claims cases) to third-level courts; investigating officers and bodies authorized by the SC to receive evidence; and special courts and quasi-judicial bodies whose rules of procedure are subject to the SC’sdisapproval. It further requires the parties’ documentary or object evidence to be attached to the judicial affidavits.

Relevant to the PLP’s request, the Rule applies to all criminal actions where the maximum of the imposable penalty does not exceed six years; where the parties agreed to the use of judicial affidavits irrespective of the penalty involved; or with respect to the civil aspect of the actions, whatever the penalties are. In these cases, the judicial affidavits must be submitted by the prosecution not later than five days before the pre-trial.

Prior to the Rule’s promulgation last September 4,  Associate Justice Roberto A. Abad, Chair of the Sub-Committee on the Revision of Rules on Civil Procedure that drafted the Rule, met with a number of prosecutors from the Department of Justice. He, along with SC Associate Justices Diosdado M. Peralta and Lucas P. Bersamin, also met with officers of the National League of Prosecutors  last December 21 to discuss the latter’s concerns regarding the Rule. Associate Justice Abad emphasized that the intent of the Judicial Affidavit Rule is to “elevate the trustworthiness and the integrity of  judicial affidavits by requiring that only lawyers be allowed to draft them and that they be made accountable for their cont

"x x x.

Republic Act No. 10354 - responsible parenthood and reproductive health law of 2012

See  -  Republic Act No. 10354 | Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines

                                                           REPUBLIC ACT NO. 10354 

AN ACT PROVIDING FOR A NATIONAL POLICY ON RESPONSIBLE PARENTHOOD AND REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress assembled:

SECTION 1. Title. – This Act shall be known as “The Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012″.

SEC. 2. Declaration of Policy. – The State recognizes and guarantees the human rights of all persons including their right to equality and nondiscrimination of these rights, the right to sustainable human development, the right to health which includes reproductive health, the right to education and information, and the right to choose and make decisions for themselves in accordance with their religious convictions, ethics, cultural beliefs, and the demands of responsible parenthood.

Pursuant to the declaration of State policies under Section 12, Article II of the 1987 Philippine Constitution, it is the duty of the State to protect and strengthen the family as a basic autonomous social institution and equally protect the life of the mother and the life of the unborn from conception. The State shall protect and promote the right to health of women especially mothers in particular and of the people in general and instill health consciousness among them. The family is the natural and fundamental unit of society. The State shall likewise protect and advance the right of families in particular and the people in general to a balanced and healthful environment in accord with the rhythm and harmony of nature. The State also recognizes and guarantees the promotion and equal protection of the welfare and rights of children, the youth, and the unborn.

Moreover, the State recognizes and guarantees the promotion of gender equality, gender equity, women empowerment and dignity as a health and human rights concern and as a social responsibility. The advancement and protection of women’s human rights shall be central to the efforts of the State to address reproductive health care.

The State recognizes marriage as an inviolable social institution and the foundation of the family which in turn is the foundation of the nation. Pursuant thereto, the State shall defend:

(a) The right of spouses to found a family in accordance with their religious convictions and the demands of responsible parenthood;

(b) The right of children to assistance, including proper care and nutrition, and special protection from all forms of neglect, abuse, cruelty, exploitation, and other conditions prejudicial to their development;

(c) The right of the family to a family living wage and income; and

(d) The right of families or family associations to participate in the planning and implementation of policies and programs

The State likewise guarantees universal access to medically-safe, non-abortifacient, effective, legal, affordable, and quality reproductive health care services, methods, devices, supplies which do not prevent the implantation of a fertilized ovum as determined by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and relevant information and education thereon according to the priority needs of women, children and other underprivileged sectors, giving preferential access to those identified through the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR) and other government measures of identifying marginalization, who shall be voluntary beneficiaries of reproductive health care, services and supplies for free. ■ •

The State shall eradicate discriminatory practices, laws and policies that infringe on a person’s exercise of reproductive health rights.

The State shall also promote openness to life; Provided, That parents bring forth to the world only those children whom they can raise in a truly humane way.

SEC. 3. Guiding Principles for Implementation. – This Act declares the following as guiding principles:

(a) The right to make free and informed decisions, which is central to the exercise of any right, shall not be subjected to any form of coercion and must be fully guaranteed by the State, like the right itself;

(b) Respect for protection and fulfillment of reproductive health and rights which seek to promote the rights and welfare of every person particularly couples, adult individuals, women and adolescents;

(c) Since human resource is among the principal assets of the country, effective and quality reproductive health care services must be given primacy to ensure maternal and child health, the health of the unborn, safe delivery and birth of healthy children, and sound replacement rate, in line with the State’s duty to promote the right to health, responsible parenthood, social justice and full human development;

(d) The provision of ethical and medically safe, legal, accessible, affordable, non-abortifacient, effective and quality reproductive health care services and supplies is essential in the promotion of people’s right to health, especially those of women, the poor, and the marginalized, and shall be incorporated as a component of basic health care;

(e) The State shall promote and provide information and access, without bias, to all methods of family planning, including effective natural and modern methods which have been proven medically safe, legal, non-abortifacient, and effective in accordance with scientific and evidence-based medical research standards such as those registered and approved by the FDA for the poor and marginalized as identified through the NHTS-PR and other government measures of identifying marginalization: Provided, That the State shall also provide funding support to promote modern natural methods of family planning, especially the Billings Ovulation Method, consistent with the needs of acceptors and their religious convictions;

(f) The State shall promote programs that: (1) enable individuals and couples to have the number of children they desire with due consideration to the health, particularly of women, and the resources available and affordable to them and in accordance with existing laws, public morals and their religious convictions: Provided, That no one shall be deprived, for economic reasons, of the rights to have children; (2) achieve equitable allocation and utilization of resources; (3) ensure effective partnership among national government, local government units (LGUs) and the private sector in the design, implementation, coordination, integration, monitoring and evaluation of people-centered programs to enhance the quality of life and environmental protection; (4) conduct studies to analyze demographic trends including demographic dividends from sound population policies towards sustainable human development in keeping with the principles of gender equality, protection of mothers and children, born and unborn and the promotion and protection of women’s reproductive rights and health; and (5) conduct scientific studies to determine the safety and efficacy of alternative medicines and methods for reproductive health care development;

(g) The provision of reproductive health care, information and supplies giving priority to poor beneficiaries as identified through the NHTS-PR and other government measures of identifying marginalization must be the primary responsibility of the national government consistent with its obligation to respect, protect and promote the right to health and the right to life;

(h) The State shall respect individuals’ preferences and choice of family planning methods that are in accordance with their religious convictions and cultural beliefs, taking into consideration the State’s obligations under various human rights instruments;

(i) Active participation by nongovernment organizations (NGOs), women’s and people’s organizations, civil society, faith-based organizations, the religious sector and communities is crucial to ensure that reproductive health and population and development policies, plans, and programs will address the priority needs of women, the poor, and the marginalized;

(j) While this Act recognizes that abortion is illegal and punishable by law, the government shall ensure that all women needing care for post-abortive complications and all other complications arising from pregnancy, labor and delivery and related issues shall be treated and counseled in a humane, nonjudgmental and compassionate manner in accordance with law and medical ethics;

(k) Each family shall have the right to determine its ideal family size: Provided, however, That the State shall equip each parent with the necessary information on all aspects of family life, including reproductive health and responsible parenthood, in order to make that determination;

(l) There shall be no demographic or population targets and the mitigation, promotion and/or stabilization of the population growth rate is incidental to the advancement of reproductive health;

(m) Gender equality and women empowerment are central elements of reproductive health and population and development;

(n) The resources of the country must be made to serve the entire population, especially the poor, and allocations thereof must be adequate and effective: Provided, That the life of the unborn is protected;

(o) Development is a multi-faceted process that calls for the harmonization and integration of policies, plans, programs and projects that seek to uplift the quality of life of the people, more particularly the poor, the needy and the marginalized; and

(p) That a comprehensive reproductive health program addresses the needs of people throughout their life cycle.

SEC. 4. Definition of Terms. – For the purpose of this Act, the following terms shall be defined as follows:

(a) Abortifacient refers to any drug or device that induces abortion or the destruction of a fetus inside the mother’s womb or the prevention of the fertilized ovum to reach and be implanted in the mother’s womb upon determination of the FDA.

(b) Adolescent refers to young people between the ages of ten (10) to nineteen (19) years who are in transition from childhood to adulthood.

(c) Basic Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (BEMONC) refers to lifesaving services for emergency maternal and newborn conditions/complications being provided by a health facility or professional to include the following services: administration of parenteral oxytocic drugs, administration of dose of parenteral anticonvulsants, administration of parenteral antibiotics, administration of maternal steroids for preterm labor, performance of assisted vaginal deliveries, removal of retained placental products, and manual removal of retained placenta. It also includes neonatal interventions which include at the minimum: newborn resuscitation, provision of warmth, and referral, blood transfusion where possible.

(d) Comprehensive Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (CEMONC) refers to lifesaving services for emergency maternal and newborn conditions/complications as in Basic Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care plus the provision of surgical delivery (caesarian section) and blood bank services, and other highly specialized obstetric interventions. It also includes emergency neonatal care which includes at the minimum: newborn resuscitation, treatment of neonatal sepsis infection, oxygen support, and antenatal administration of (maternal) steroids for threatened premature delivery.

(e) Family planning refers to a program which enables couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children and to have the information and means to do so, and to have access to a full range of safe, affordable, effective, non-abortifacient modem natural and artificial methods of planning pregnancy.

(f) Fetal and infant death review refers to a qualitative and in-depth study of the causes of fetal and infant death with the primary purpose of preventing future deaths through changes or additions to programs, plans and policies.

(g) Gender equality refers to the principle of equality between women and men and equal rights to enjoy conditions in realizing their full human potentials to contribute to, and benefit from, the results of development, with the State recognizing that all human beings are free and equal in dignity and rights. It entails equality in opportunities, in the allocation of resources or benefits, or in access to services in furtherance of the rights to health and sustainable human development among others, without discrimination.

(h) Gender equity refers to the policies, instruments, programs and actions that address the disadvantaged position of women in society by providing preferential treatment and affirmative action. It entails fairness and justice in the distribution of benefits and responsibilities between women and men, and often requires women-specific projects and programs to end existing inequalities. This concept recognizes that while reproductive health involves women and men, it is more critical for women’s health.

(i) Male responsibility refers to the involvement, commitment, accountability and responsibility of males in all areas of sexual health and reproductive health, as well as the care of reproductive health concerns specific to men.

(j) Maternal death review refers to a qualitative and in-depth study of the causes of maternal death with the primary purpose of preventing future deaths through changes or additions to programs, plans and policies.

(k) Maternal health refers to the health of a woman of reproductive age including, but not limited to, during pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period.

(l) Modern methods of family planning refers to safe, effective, non-abortifacient and legal methods, whether natural or artificial, that are registered with the FDA, to plan pregnancy.

(m) Natural family planning refers to a variety of methods used to plan or prevent pregnancy based on identifying the woman’s fertile days.

(n) Public health care service provider refers to: (1) public health care institution, which is duly licensed and accredited and devoted primarily to the maintenance and operation of facilities for health promotion, disease prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care of individuals suffering from illness, disease, injury, disability or deformity, or in need of obstetrical or other medical and nursing care; (2) public health care professional, who is a doctor of medicine, a nurse or a midwife; (3) public health worker engaged in the delivery of health care services; or (4) barangay health worker who has undergone training programs under any accredited government and NGO and who voluntarily renders primarily health care services in the community after having been accredited to function as such by the local health board in accordance with the guideline’s promulgated by the Department of Health (DOH).

(o) Poor refers to members of households identified as poor through the NHTS-PR by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) or any subsequent system used by the national government in identifying the poor.

(p) Reproductive Health (RH) refers to the state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, in all matters relating to the reproductive system and to its functions and processes. This implies that people are able to have a responsible, safe, consensual and satisfying sex life, that they have the capability to reproduce and the freedom to decide if, when, and how often to do so. This further implies that women and men attain equal relationships in matters related to sexual relations and reproduction.

(q) Reproductive health care refers to the access to a full range of methods, facilities, services and supplies that contribute to reproductive health and well-being by addressing reproductive health-related problems. It also includes sexual health, the purpose of which is the enhancement of life and personal relations. The elements of reproductive health care include the following:

(1) Family planning information and services which shall include as a first priority making women of reproductive age fully aware of their respective cycles to make them aware of when fertilization is highly probable, as well as highly improbable;

(2) Maternal, infant and child health and nutrition, including breastfeeding;

(3) Proscription of abortion and management of abortion complications;

(4) Adolescent and youth reproductive health guidance and counseling;

(5) Prevention, treatment and management of reproductive tract infections (RTIs), HIV and AIDS and other sexually transmittable infections (STIs);

(6) Elimination of violence against women and children and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence;

(7) Education and counseling on sexuality and reproductive health;

(8) Treatment of breast and reproductive tract cancers and other gynecological conditions and disorders;

(9) Male responsibility and involvement and men’s reproductive health;

(10) Prevention, treatment and management of infertility and sexual dysfunction;

(11) Reproductive health education for the adolescents; and

(12) Mental health aspect of reproductive health care.

(r) Reproductive health care program refers to the systematic and integrated provision of reproductive health care to all citizens prioritizing women, the poor, marginalized and those invulnerable or crisis situations.

(s) Reproductive health rights refers to the rights of individuals and couples, to decide freely and responsibly whether or not to have children; the number, spacing and timing of their children; to make other decisions concerning reproduction, free of discrimination, coercion and violence; to have the information and means to do so; and to attain the highest standard of sexual health and reproductive health: Provided, however, That reproductive health rights do not include abortion, and access to abortifacients.

(t) Reproductive health and sexuality education refers to a lifelong learning process of providing and acquiring complete, accurate and relevant age- and development-appropriate information and education on reproductive health and sexuality through life skills education and other approaches.

(u) Reproductive Tract Infection (RTI) refers to sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and other types of infections affecting the reproductive system.

(v) Responsible parenthood refers to the will and ability of a parent to respond to the needs and aspirations of the family and children. It is likewise a shared responsibility between parents to determine and achieve the desired number of children, spacing and timing of their children according to their own family life aspirations, taking into account psychological preparedness, health status, sociocultural and economic concerns consistent with their religious convictions.

(w) Sexual health refers to a state of physical, mental and social well-being in relation to sexuality. It requires a positive and respectful approach to sexuality and sexual relationships, as well as the possibility of having pleasurable and safe sexual experiences, free from coercion, discrimination and violence.

(x) Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) refers to any infection that may be acquired or passed on through sexual contact, use of IV, intravenous drug needles, childbirth and breastfeeding.

(y) Skilled birth attendance refers to childbirth managed by a skilled health professional including the enabling conditions of necessary equipment and support of a functioning health system, including transport and referral faculties for emergency obstetric care.

(z) Skilled health professional refers to a midwife, doctor or nurse, who has been educated and trained in the skills needed to manage normal and complicated pregnancies, childbirth and the immediate postnatal period, and in the identification, management and referral of complications in women and newborns.

(aa) Sustainable human development refers to bringing people, particularly the poor and vulnerable, to the center of development process, the central purpose of which is the creation of an enabling environment in which all can enjoy long, healthy and productive lives, done in the manner that promotes their rights and protects the life opportunities of future generations and the natural ecosystem on which all life depends.

SEC. 5. Hiring of Skilled Health Professionals for Maternal Health Care and Skilled Birth Attendance. – The LGUs shall endeavor to hire an adequate number of nurses, midwives and other skilled health professionals for maternal health care and skilled birth attendance to achieve an ideal skilled health professional-to-patient ratio taking into consideration DOH targets: Provided, That people in geographically isolated or highly populated and depressed areas shall be provided the same level of access to health care: Provided, further, That the national government shall provide additional and necessary funding and other necessary assistance for the effective implementation of this provision.

For the purposes of this Act, midwives and nurses shall be allowed to administer lifesaving drugs such as, but not limited to, oxytocin and magnesium sulfate, in accordance with the guidelines set by the DOH, under emergency conditions and when there are no physicians available: Provided, That they are properly trained and certified to administer these lifesaving drugs.

SEC. 6. Health Care Facilities. – Each LGU, upon its determination of the necessity based on well-supported data provided by its local health office shall endeavor to establish or upgrade hospitals and facilities with adequate and qualified personnel, equipment and supplies to be able to provide emergency obstetric and newborn care: Provided, That people in geographically isolated or highly populated and depressed areas shall have the same level of access and shall not be neglected by providing other means such as home visits or mobile health care clinics as needed: Provided, further, That the national government shall provide additional and necessary funding and other necessary assistance for the effective implementation of this provision.

SEC. 7. Access to Family Planning. – All accredited public health facilities shall provide a full range of modern family planning methods, which shall also include medical consultations, supplies and necessary and reasonable procedures for poor and marginalized couples having infertility issues who desire to have children: Provided, That family planning services shall likewise be extended by private health facilities to paying patients with the option to grant free care and services to indigents, except in the case of non-maternity specialty hospitals and hospitals owned and operated by a religious group, but they have the option to provide such full range of modern family planning methods: Provided, further, That these hospitals shall immediately refer the person seeking such care and services to another health facility which is conveniently accessible: Provided, finally, That the person is not in an emergency condition or serious case as defined in Republic Act No. 8344.

No person shall be denied information and access to family planning services, whether natural or artificial: Provided, That minors will not be allowed access to modern methods of family planning without written consent from their parents or guardian/s except when the minor is already a parent or has had a miscarriage.

SEC. 8. Maternal Death Review and Fetal and Infant Death Review. – All LGUs, national and local government hospitals, and other public health units shall conduct an annual Maternal Death Review and Fetal and Infant Death Review in accordance with the guidelines set by the DOH. Such review should result in an evidence-based programming and budgeting process that would contribute to the development of more responsive reproductive health services to promote women’s health and safe motherhood.

SEC. 9. The Philippine National Drug Formulary System and Family Planning Supplies. – The National Drug Formulary shall include hormonal contraceptives, intrauterine devices, injectables and other safe, legal, non-abortifacient and effective family planning products and supplies. The Philippine National Drug Formulary System (PNDFS) shall be observed in selecting drugs including family planning supplies that will be included or removed from the Essential Drugs List (EDL) in accordance with existing practice and in consultation with reputable medical associations in the Philippines. For the purpose of this Act, any product or supply included or to be included in the EDL must have a certification from the FDA that said product and supply is made available on the condition that it is not to be used as an abortifacient.

These products and supplies shall also be included in the regular purchase of essential medicines and supplies of all national hospitals: Provided, further, That the foregoing offices shall not purchase or acquire by any means emergency contraceptive pills, postcoital pills, abortifacients that will be used for such purpose and their other forms or equivalent.

SEC. 10. Procurement and Distribution of Family Planning Supplies. – The DOH shall procure, distribute to LGUs and monitor the usage of family planning supplies for the whole country. The DOH shall coordinate with all appropriate local government bodies to plan and implement this procurement and distribution program. The supply and budget allotments shall be based on, among others, the current levels and projections of the following:

(a) Number of women of reproductive age and couples who want to space or limit their children;

(b) Contraceptive prevalence rate, by type of method used; and

(c) Cost of family planning supplies.

Provided, That LGUs may implement its own procurement, distribution and monitoring program consistent with the overall provisions of this Act and the guidelines of the DOH.

SEC. 11. Integration of Responsible Parenthood and Family Planning Component in Anti-Poverty Programs. – A multidimensional approach shall be adopted in the implementation of policies and programs to fight poverty. Towards this end, the DOH shall implement programs prioritizing full access of poor and marginalized women as identified through the NHTS-PR and other government measures of identifying marginalization to reproductive health care, services, products and programs. The DOH shall provide such programs, technical support, including capacity building and monitoring.

SEC. 12. PhilHealth Benefits for Serious .and Life-Threatening Reproductive Health Conditions. – All serious and life-threatening reproductive health conditions such as HIV and AIDS, breast and reproductive tract cancers, and obstetric complications, and menopausal and post-menopausal-related conditions shall be given the maximum benefits, including the provision of Anti-Retroviral Medicines (ARVs), as provided in the guidelines set by the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PHIC).

SEC. 13. Mobile Health Care Service. – The national or the local government may provide each provincial, city, municipal and district hospital with a Mobile Health Care Service (MHCS) in the form of a van or other means of transportation appropriate to its terrain, taking into consideration the health care needs of each LGU. The MHCS shall deliver health care goods and services to its constituents, more particularly to the poor and needy, as well as disseminate knowledge and information on reproductive health. The MHCS shall be operated by skilled health providers and adequately equipped with a wide range of health care materials and information dissemination devices and equipment, the latter including, but not limited to, a television set for audio-visual presentations. All MHCS shall be operated by LGUs of provinces and highly urbanized cities.

SEC. 14. Age- and Development-Appropriate Reproductive Health Education. – The State shall provide age- and development-appropriate reproductive health education to adolescents which shall be taught by adequately trained teachers informal and nonformal educational system and integrated in relevant subjects such as, but not limited to, values formation; knowledge and skills in self-protection against discrimination; sexual abuse and violence against women and children and other forms of gender based violence and teen pregnancy; physical, social and emotional changes in adolescents; women’s rights and children’s rights; responsible teenage behavior; gender and development; and responsible parenthood:Provided, That flexibility in the formulation and adoption of appropriate course content, scope and methodology in each educational level or group shall be allowed only after consultations with parents-teachers-community associations, school officials and other interest groups. The Department of Education (DepED) shall formulate a curriculum which shall be used by public schools and may be adopted by private schools.

SEC. 15. Certificate of Compliance. – No marriage license shall be issued by the Local Civil Registrar unless the applicants present a Certificate of Compliance issued for free by the local Family Planning Office certifying that they had duly received adequate instructions and information on responsible parenthood, family planning, breastfeeding and infant nutrition.

SEC. 16. Capacity Building of Barangay Health Workers (BHWs). – The DOH shall be responsible for disseminating information and providing training programs to the LGUs. The LGUs, with the technical assistance of the DOH, shall be responsible for the training of BHWs and other barangay volunteers on the promotion of reproductive health. The DOH shall provide the LGUs with medical supplies and equipment needed by BHWs to carry out their functions effectively: Provided, further, That the national government shall provide additional and necessary funding and other necessary assistance for the effective implementation of this provision including the possible provision of additional honoraria for BHWs.

SEC. 17. Pro Bono Services for Indigent Women. – Private and nongovernment reproductive healthcare service providers including, but not limited to, gynecologists and obstetricians, are encouraged to provide at least forty-eight (48) hours annually of reproductive health services, ranging from providing information and education to rendering medical services, free of charge to indigent and low-income patients as identified through the NHTS-PR and other government measures of identifying marginalization, especially to pregnant adolescents. The forty-eight (48) hours annual pro bono services shall be included as a prerequisite in the accreditation under the PhilHealth.

SEC. 18. Sexual and Reproductive Health Programs for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs). – The cities and municipalities shall endeavor that barriers to reproductive health services for PWDs are obliterated by the following:

(a) Providing physical access, and resolving transportation and proximity issues to clinics, hospitals and places where public health education is provided, contraceptives are sold or distributed or other places where reproductive health services are provided;

(b) Adapting examination tables and other laboratory procedures to the needs and conditions of PWDs;

(c) Increasing access to information and communication materials on sexual and reproductive health in braille, large print, simple language, sign language and pictures;

(d) Providing continuing education and inclusion of rights of PWDs among health care providers; and

(e) Undertaking activities to raise awareness and address misconceptions among the general public on the stigma and their lack of knowledge on the sexual and reproductive health needs and rights of PWDs.

SEC. 19. Duties and Responsibilities. – (a) Pursuant to the herein declared policy, the DOH shall serve as the lead agency for the implementation of this Act and shall integrate in their regular operations the following functions:

(1) Fully and efficiently implement the reproductive health care program;

(2) Ensure people’s access to medically safe, non-abortifacient, legal, quality and affordable reproductive health goods and services; and

(3) Perform such other functions necessary to attain the purposes of this Act.

(b) The DOH, in coordination with the PHIC, as may be applicable, shall:

(1) Strengthen the capacities of health regulatory agencies to ensure safe, high quality, accessible and affordable reproductive health services and commodities with the concurrent strengthening and enforcement of regulatory mandates and mechanisms;

(2) Facilitate the involvement and participation of NGOs and the private sector in reproductive health care service delivery and in the production, distribution and delivery of quality reproductive health and family planning supplies and commodities to make them accessible and affordable to ordinary citizens;

(3) Engage the services, skills and proficiencies of experts in natural family planning who shall provide the necessary training for all BHWs;

(4) Supervise and provide assistance to LGUs in the delivery of reproductive health care services and in the purchase of family planning goods and supplies; and

(5) Furnish LGUs, through their respective local health offices, appropriate information and resources to keep the latter updated on current studies and researches relating to family planning, responsible parenthood, breastfeeding and infant nutrition.

(c) The FDA shall issue strict guidelines with respect to the use of contraceptives, taking into consideration the side effects or other harmful effects of their use.

(d) Corporate citizens shall exercise prudence in advertising its products or services through all forms of media, especially on matters relating to sexuality, further taking into consideration its influence on children and the youth.

SEC. 20. Public Awareness. – The DOH and the LGUs shall initiate and sustain a heightened nationwide multimedia-campaign to raise the level of public awareness on the protection and promotion of reproductive health and rights including, but not limited to, maternal health and nutrition, family planning and responsible parenthood information and services, adolescent and youth reproductive health, guidance and counseling and other elements of reproductive health care under Section 4(q).

Education and information materials to be developed and disseminated for this purpose shall be reviewed regularly to ensure their effectiveness and relevance.

SEC. 21. Reporting Requirements. – Before the end of April each year, the DOH shall submit to the President of the Philippines and Congress an annual consolidated report, which shall provide a definitive and comprehensive assessment of the implementation of its programs and those of other government agencies and instrumentalities and recommend priorities for executive and legislative actions. The report shall be printed and distributed to all national agencies, the LGUs, NGOs and private sector organizations involved in said programs.

The annual report shall evaluate the content, implementation, and impact of all policies related to reproductive health and family planning to ensure that such policies promote, protect and fulfill women’s reproductive health and rights.

SEC. 22. Congressional Oversight Committee on Reproductive Health Act. – There is hereby created a Congressional Oversight Committee (COC) composed of five (5) members each from the Senate and the House of Representatives. The members from the Senate and the House of Representatives shall be appointed by the Senate President and the Speaker, respectively, with at least one (1) member representing the Minority.

The COC shall be headed by the respective Chairs of the Committee on Health and Demography of the Senate and the Committee on Population and Family Relations of the House of Representatives. The Secretariat of the COC shall come from the existing Secretariat personnel of the Senate and the House of Representatives committees concerned.

The COC shall monitor and ensure the effective implementation of this Act, recommend the necessary remedial legislation or administrative measures, and shall conduct a review of this Act every five (5) years from its effectivity. The COC shall perform such other duties and functions as may be necessary to attain the objectives of tins Act.

SEC. 23. Prohibited Acts. – The following acts are prohibited:

(a) Any health care service provider, whether public or private, who shall:

(1) Knowingly withhold information or restrict the dissemination thereof, and/or intentionally provide incorrect information regarding programs and services on reproductive health including the right to informed choice and access to a full range of legal, medically-safe, non-abortifacient and effective family planning methods;

(2) Refuse to perform legal and medically-safe reproductive health procedures on any person of legal age on the ground of lack of consent or authorization of the following persons in the following instances:

(i) Spousal consent in case of married persons: Provided, That in case of disagreement, the decision of the one undergoing the procedure shall prevail; and

(ii) Parental consent or that of the person exercising parental authority in the case of abused minors, where the parent or the person exercising parental authority is the respondent, accused or convicted perpetrator as certified by the proper prosecutorial office of the court. In the case of minors, the written consent of parents or legal guardian or, in their absence, persons exercising parental authority or next-of-kin shall be required only in elective surgical procedures and in no case shall consent be required in emergency or serious cases as defined in Republic Act No. 8344; and

(3) Refuse to extend quality health care services and information on account of the person’s marital status, gender, age, religious convictions, personal circumstances, or nature of work: Provided, That the conscientious objection of a health care service provider based on his/her ethical or religious beliefs shall be respected; however, the conscientious objector shall immediately refer the person seeking such care and services to another health care service provider within the same facility or one which is conveniently accessible: Provided, further, That the person is not in an emergency condition or serious case as defined in Republic Act No. 8344, which penalizes the refusal of hospitals and medical clinics to administer appropriate initial medical treatment and support in emergency and serious cases;

(b) Any public officer, elected or appointed, specifically charged with the duty to implement the provisions hereof, who, personally or through a subordinate, prohibits or restricts the delivery of legal and medically-safe reproductive health care services, including family planning; or forces, coerces or induces any person to use such services; or refuses to allocate, approve or release any budget for reproductive health care services, or to support reproductive health programs; or shall do any act that hinders the full implementation of a reproductive health program as mandated by this Act;

(c) Any employer who shall suggest, require, unduly influence or cause any applicant for employment or an employee to submit himself/herself to sterilization, use any modern methods of family planning, or not use such methods as a condition for employment, continued employment, promotion or the provision of employment benefits. Further, pregnancy or the number of children shall not be a ground for non-hiring or termination from employment;

(d) Any person who shall falsify a Certificate of Compliance as required in Section 15 of this Act; and

(e) Any pharmaceutical company, whether domestic or multinational, or its agents or distributors, which directly or indirectly colludes with government officials, whether appointed or elected, in the distribution, procurement and/or sale by the national government and LGUs of modern family planning supplies, products and devices.

SEC. 24. Penalties. – Any violation of this Act or commission of the foregoing prohibited acts shall be penalized by imprisonment ranging from one (1) month to six (6) months or a fine of Ten thousand pesos (P10,000.00) to One hundred thousand pesos (P100,000.00), or both such fine and imprisonment at the discretion of the competent court: Provided, That, if the offender is a public officer, elected or appointed, he/she shall also suffer the penalty of suspension not exceeding one (1) year or removal and forfeiture of retirement benefits depending on the gravity of the offense after due notice and hearing by the appropriate body or agency.

If the offender is a juridical person, the penalty shall be imposed upon the president or any responsible officer. An offender who is an alien shall, after service of sentence, be deported immediately without further proceedings by the Bureau of Immigration. If the offender is a pharmaceutical company, its agent and/or distributor, their license or permit to operate or conduct business in the Philippines shall be perpetually revoked, and a fine triple the amount involved in the violation shall be imposed.

SEC. 25. Appropriations. – The amounts appropriated in the current annual General Appropriations Act (GAA) for reproductive health and natural and artificial family planning and responsible parenthood under the DOH and other concerned agencies shall be allocated and utilized for the implementation of this Act. Such additional sums necessary to provide for the upgrading of faculties necessary to meet BEMONC and CEMONC standards; the training and deployment of skilled health providers; natural and artificial family planning commodity requirements as outlined in Section 10, and for other reproductive health and responsible parenthood services, shall be included in the subsequent years’ general appropriations. The Gender and Development (GAD) funds of LGUs and national agencies may be a source of funding for the implementation of this Act.

SEC. 26. Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR). – Within sixty (60) days from the effectivity of this Act, the DOH Secretary or his/her designated representative as Chairperson, the authorized representative/s of DepED, DSWD, Philippine Commission on Women, PHIC, Department of the Interior and Local Government, National Economic and Development Authority, League of Provinces, League of Cities, and League of Municipalities, together with NGOs, faith-based organizations, people’s, women’s and young people’s organizations, shall jointly promulgate the rules and regulations for the effective implementation of this Act. At least four (4) members of the IRR drafting committee, to be selected by the DOH Secretary, shall come from NGOs.

SEC. 27. Interpretation Clause. – This Act shall be liberally construed to ensure the provision, delivery and access to reproductive health care services, and to promote, protect and fulfill women’s reproductive health and rights.

SEC. 28. Separability Clause. – If any part or provision of this Act is held invalid or unconstitutional, the other provisions not affected thereby shall remain in force and effect.

SEC. 29. Repealing Clause. – Except for prevailing laws against abortion, any law, presidential decree or issuance, executive order, letter of instruction, administrative order, rule or regulation contrary to or is inconsistent with the provisions of this Act including Republic Act No. 7392, otherwise known as the Midwifery Act, is hereby repealed, modified or amended accordingly.

SEC 30. Effectivity. – This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its publication in at least two (2) newspapers of general circulation.

(Sgd.) FELICIANO BELMONTE JR.Speaker of the House of Representatives

(Sgd.) JUAN PONCE ENRILE President of the Senate

This Act which is a consolidation of Senate Bill No. 2865 and House Bill No. 4244 was finally passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives on December 19, 2012.

(Sgd.) MARILYN B. BARUA-YAP Secretary General House of Representatives

(Sgd.) EMMA LIRIO-REYES Secretary of the Senate

Approved: DEC 21 2012

(Sgd.) BENIGNO S. AQUINO IIIPresident of the Philippines

RESOURCES

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• Republic Act No. 10354, December 21, 2012  

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