THE DREAM, THE CHALLENGE, THE PROMISING DEVELOPMENT

THE President's 3rd SONA has brought joy and hope to the Filipino people especially when the President delivered these inspiring lines. "But what we know about our people, and what we had proven time and again to the world was this: Nothing is impossible to a united Filipino nation. It was change we dreamed of, and change we achieved; the benefits of change are now par for the course."

Indeed, we are glad to know the very promising transformation from being the "sick man of Asia to one who now beams with vitality with a growing GDP by 6.4 percent which is said to be much higher than projected. It was a great relief to hear comments that "Once, we were the debtors; now, we are the creditors.”

How will this apply to Northern Mindanao?

Checking the revenue performance statistics of Northern Mindanao during the first quarter of 2012, NEDA-10 reported P1.43 billion tax collections and P 1.36 billion customs collections, which are higher by 26 and 1 8 percent, respectively as compared with the same period last year.

However, behind the rosy portrait, the SONA presented a bleak picture which needs to be arrested. To borrow  the words of the President, "Challenges remain. The high maternal mortality ratio in our country continues to alarm us."

This is about the increasing maternal deaths from 162 to 221 per 100,000 live births from 2006-2010 as revealed during the launch of the National Statistics  Office 2011 Family Helath Survey last June 19, 2012.

According to the keynote speech of Health Secretary Enrique Ona: The cruelest irony is that women are dying  as they are giving life .” Such statement is loaded and its implications remind us of the vulnerabilities that confront our women population .

Putting the statistics simply would give us a picture of estimated 11 faceless women dying each day from highly preventable complications arising from pregnancy and childbirth.

This would of course lead us to a blatant contrast which shows that today more Filipino women  die in childbirth than in the early 1990’s.

Sec. Ona in his speech stressed that “we need real time health statistics that can guide us in making crucial decisions as we reform our healthcare system.” And true enough, these statistics have generated promising development.

The SONA unveiled some facts that based on data from DSWD: 1,672,977 mothers now get regular checkups; 1,672,814 children have been vaccinated against diarrhea, polio, measles, and various other diseases.

With this promising development, there is no doubt that we can reverse the trend and give each and every mother the promise of a healthy life.

Posted in: Press Release