Izumi Murakami, chief advisor of JICA’s Maternal and Child Heath Project in Biliran and Ifugao, said the lack of effective and sustainable implementation of health programs on the grassroots level, particularly in poor rural areas in the country, has undermined the Philippine government’s efforts to meet the Millenium Development Goals or MDGs which cover several areas, including poverty reduction, education, gender, and environment.

 “Most probably, the Philippines can’t achieve the MDGs, particularly the numbers 4 and 5—[which are to reduce child mortality and improve maternal health.] You really have to try very, very hard to achieve these goals,” she told a small group of reporters who participated in the JICA-initiated press tour to Biliran province.

Murakami, a nurse and a midwife by profession, called on the Philippine government to launch more facility-based health programs and ensure that the all have access to primary health care.

“Currently, the Philippines has a maternal mortality rate ratio of 169 per 100,000 live births. This should be reduced to 52 per 100,000 births and you only have six years to go,” she said.

She added that even her home country has encountered difficulty in reaching a zero maternal and infant mortality rates.  “In Japan,  we still have 5 to 10 mortality out of 100,000 live births and it is difficult to make it zero.”

For the past several decades, the Philippines has recorded a high incidence of maternal deaths due to the traditional perception of Filipinos that pregnancy “is a natural occurrence and not as a risky medical condition” and the belief that the death of a new mother is fated and not because of lack of adequate medical care, according to the Department of Health (DoH).

The 2005 United Nations MDG region review showed that Philippines has one of the highest maternal and infant mortality rates among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Murakami noted the importance of improving the health care infrastructure to bring down the alarming number of maternal and newborn deaths in the country.

“You have to improve more your healthcare delivery facilities to lessen the incidence of deaths,” the Japanese health expert said.

She also warned that the decentralization in some health implementing agencies has somehow diluted the Philippine government’s efforts to achieve the MDGs, which were indicated in the Millennium Declaration adopted by the world leaders during the UN Millennium Summit in September, 2000.

The JICA, which has been funding various development projects in the Philippines, has provided US$ 1.5 million worth of technical assistance to the “Paradise Island” of Biliran to implement the  four-year Maternal and Child Heath (MCH) project, which ends in March 2010. With a population of 160,800 people, Biliran has been chosen as a MCH project site, along with Ifugao, because of the disturbing number of maternal and infant deaths.