Senator Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara has filed a measure seeking to provide free menstrual products to all indigent women and girls who are enrolled in public schools.
Angara said empowering women is crucial to the health and social development of families as they play a role in nation-building. But with the country having a population of close to 120 million people, including more than 34 million adolescent girls and women of child-bearing age, it is only proper for the government to ensure their rights to proper health care is protected.
The senator said one pivotal stage of womanhood is menstruation as it is crucial in the creation of life and human development.
But based on a study of Humanist Alliance Philippines (HAPI), a civil society organization, 74 percent of women between 14 and 30 have missed work or school due to lack of access to hygiene products, the senator cited.
According to the organization, these women and girls “felt too embarrassed to leave the house due to the lack of (hygienic) products.”
“Therefore, it is only proper to address ‘period poverty’ or the limited access to or affordability of menstrual health and hygiene services and products that poses serious health risks, particularly reproductive and urinary tract infections among other complications. The prevalence of these illnesses can be prevented through the promotion of menstrual hygiene,” Angara said in the explanatory note of Senate Bill No. 2658.
“Hence, this measure seeks to provide free menstrual health and hygiene products to indigent women nationwide and to girls enrolled in public schools to resolve the issue on the lack of access to sanitary items needed by Filipinas,” he stressed.
Likewise, the senator said the bill also seeks to mandate the promotion and use of Philippine-made menstrual hygiene and health products to foster the domestic industry on sanitary goods.
“As these items are considered as a necessity for women, this measure will improve the country's human development and its local industries as well as implement the State's policy on achieving gender equality, social dignity, and sustainable development,” he stated.