PopCom insists other contraceptives covered in 2015 TRO

MANILA, Philippines - The Commission on Population (PopCom) yesterday belied the pronouncement of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno that the June 2015 temporary restraining order (TRO) on contraceptives covers only subdermal implants.

In a statement, PopCom said Sereno was referring only to the second part of the TRO which restrained the government from using contraceptive implants Implanon and Implanon NXT.

The agency noted that the first part of the TRO “specifically ordered the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to refrain from ‘granting any and all pending applications for registration and/or recertification for contraceptive drugs and devices.’”

“(The) TRO affects not only implants but also pills, (which) also infringes on 700,000 women’s right to choose,” PopCom added.

In his second State of the Nation Address last Monday, President Duterte branded the TRO as the “bane of (government) projects,” as it impedes the full implementation of the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health (RPRH) law.

In response to this, Sereno claimed that the TRO does not cover all contraceptives but merely the implants.

PopCom executive director Juan Antonio Perez III has pointed out the “urgency of the situation and stressed that there is a burgeoning public health emergency if the TRO will not be lifted.”

“Because of the TRO, the FDA could not recertify 30 out of 47 contraceptives with expired registrations, and as long as the TRO persists, more and more contraceptives will lose their certificates of product registration,” he said.

Based on Perez’s records, nine contraceptives will expire by the end of the year, 13 will expire by next year, four in 2019 and one by 2020.

Under Republic Act 8203 or the Counterfeit Drug Act, possession of unregistered imported drugs is considered an offense.

“Under the law, we cannot buy unregistered products,” Perez said.

He added that at the same time, the “government cannot procure contraceptives without proper registration, and this now includes progestin-only pills (POPs), one of the important methods for the Family Planning Program which the government has not been able to procure since 2016.”

“The TRO thus affects almost 200,000 implant users and 500,000 POP users. The TRO, therefore, affects not only contraceptive implants, but also the POPs which are now out of stock in Department of Health warehouses,” he said. – With Emmanuel Tupas