STATEMENT OF THE PHILIPPINE DELEGATION

3rd Asian Women Parliamentarians’ Conference on Population and

Development
2-3 August 2005, Colombo, Sri lanka

Honorable Chairperson:

We congratulate the Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and

Development and the Sri Lanka Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and
Development, the Sri Lanka Ministry of Health, the UNFPA, and the
Government of Japan for organizing this conference on Population and
Development for organizing this conference on “Engendering MDGs: A
Challenge”.

It is in these gatherings that parliamentarians come to tackle how the half of

Asia’s poor can be taken out of poverty. Although women in each country face
their own particular struggles, the face of poverty have similar contours in
our part of the globe. It is in this light that the Millennium Development Goals
are significant for Asian leaders because it provide us a framework and
definite goals to work on.

We take pride in informing our fellow parliamentarians in Asia that the

Philippine Government gives high esteem for the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs). The MDGs which underscores the significance of governance,
peace and security, and human rights including gender equality are also
articulated in the Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan 2004-2010.

The Philippine Government is now ensuring that legislation and financing for
the MDGs will be realized in the House of Representatives when it formed the
Special Committee on the MDGs. We are also ensuring that local government
units take the MDGs into their development plans and make sure that they
take serious monitoring to measure their progress. Because the MDGs are
societal commitments, the participation of civil society in assessing the
country’s progress are solicited through consultations in various levels of
government. Products of these consultative meetings are the First and
Second Philippine Progress Report on the MDGs.

We are working to improve our data-gathering mechanisms especially in

providing sex-disaggregated data for relevant indicators. We have made
increasing access to reproductive health a separate target under Goal 5 in
order to reflect the particular needs of women to take command over their
fertility and their productive roles in society.

In legislation, the Special Committee on the MDGs and the Philippine

Legislators Committee on Population and Development are encouraging
policymakers to make MDG-responsive legislation. At present, the battle to
enact a national policy on reproductive health is making headway despite
strong opposition from the hierarchy of the Catholic Church.
Clearly, empowering our women through sexual and reproductive health and
rights is an imperative in improving the nation’s wealth -- 64 percent of it is
human capital, 16 percent is gross domestic production, and 20 percent
natural resources. Women can be actors for change and development if
parliamentarians perceive the MDGs, not merely as targets but as
aspirations. Not as separate goals but as interdependent visions. We cannot
simply be satisfied with what the targets tell us to achieve. We must address
the full range of needs and wants that are not explicitly expressed in the
MDGs, for our women, to improve their quality of life.

Thus, we are one with this body in strongly emphasizing that the fulfillment of
sexual and reproductive health should be a vision in the MDG and not simply
as an implicit target, treated separately. In this way, the MDGs become more
relevant to women’s full development so they can participate in fulfilling their
State’s national development plans.

We hope that more parliamentarians will carry the torch for empowering
Asia’s women. Congratulations to all of us!

Signed:

Congresswoman Josefina Joson

Congresswoman Reylina Nicolas

Congresswoman Lorna Silverio

Congresswoman Nerissa Corazon Soon-Ruiz

Attachments:

1. Second Philippine Progress Report on the MDGs

2. Local Government Unit Guide on MDG Localization
3. Special Committee on MDGs Legislative Agenda (Top Priority Measures)