MANILA, Philippines (PNA) -- In a fitting tribute to the celebration of  Women’s Month, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) spearheaded an information drive against cervical cancer for its women traffic enforcers and employees.

Corazon Jimenez, MMDA general manager, led the information dissemination program last Tuesday in coordination with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), aimed at increasing the awareness of employees about cervical cancer, the second biggest cause of female cancer mortality in the Philippines today.

To encourage them, Jimenez said women employees may avail of the cervical cancer vaccination program through salary deduction from the agency.

GlaxoSmithKline said each of their anti-cervical cancer vaccine shot costs P6,000 to P7,000. Three shots must be administered to a woman within six months.

The MMDA official said the program is also part of the agency’s effort to promote the well-being of its women employees, including traffic enforcers.

MMDA takes the empowerment of women, particularly of female traffic enforcers, a level higher by safeguarding their health and rights. Programs such as vaccination campaigns provide women a good chance of beating cervical cancer.

For her part, beauty queen Abby Arenas-De Leon, an advocate of cervical cancer prevention, said that 12 Filipinas die of cervical cancer daily, stressing the need for every female to be on guard against cervical cancer.

“More than half of the women with cervical cancer in the Philippines will die within five years after diagnosis. It is a disease that strikes women regardless of age and class,” she said to the gathered MMDA employees.

Each year in the Philippines 6,000 women develop cervical cancer and it is estimated that 4,300 women die from the disease. With about two-thirds of cervical cancer cases in the country diagnosed in the advanced stages when mortality is high, 56 percent of Filipino women with cervical cancer will die within five years from the time of diagnosis.