Group pushes human development issues in 2010 election campaign

By MARVYN N. BENANING
November 20, 2009, 6:13pm


Advocates gear to push mainstream human development agenda as an electoral issue in the coming 2010 elections amid the chaos in the political arena, as politicians are tangled in the mess of party alignment and re-alignment.

In line with this, multi-sectoral forums that seek to raise policy concerns from various sectors kicked off on Friday, tackling health, at the University of the Philippines Bahay Kalinaw.

Ramon San Pascual, Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development Foundation, Inc. (PLCPD) executive director, explained that this activity aims to gather policy. agenda that will be presented by the group as challenge to the 2010 national election candidates.

So far, he added, the multi-sectoral forums will cover five areas such as health, education, children, environment and trade issues.

San Pascual underscored that these areas should be given prime importance by the next administration if the Philippine government is serious in meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

MDGs is a set of targets of governments in eliminating poverty including access to universal primary education, reducing maternal and infant mortality, environment sustainability, gender empowerment, and fair trade among others.

He said, “Early on, these candidates must already make pronouncements on their programs and policies on how to meet the Philippine commitment on the MDGs once they get elected. The electorate should be more vigilant in such a way that we should now base our votes not on the personality but on their concrete plan of action.”

San Pascual added, “This initiative will be conducted not only during the election period but will go beyond, long after the election is over. Our group will see to it that the candidates do not forget their promises once they get elected. As a matter of agreement, the group will intensify their electoral campaign so the candidates will include these issues in their political platform.”

Meanwhile, during the forum Dr. Ramon Paterno of the National Institute of University of the Philippines presented the overall health status of the Philippines which is way lower than Thailand, Malaysia, Japan, and Korea.

He reported that the 70 years average life expectancy at birth in the Philippines is more than 15 years shorter than those of developed countries. He cited uneven distribution of human resources in the health sector as one problem in the system.

He estimates that 70 percent of health workers are employed in a private health sector which serves only 30 percent of the population that can afford to pay for their health care.

“There is really a need to have huge reform for universal health care and the time to start doing what should have been started long ago is now,” Paterno said.


Source: http://mb.com.ph/node/230424/group-pu