The people can now enjoy access to contraceptive pills, IUDs, condoms and injectables. Affordable and quality reproductive care services and information including the elimination of violence against women, maternal and child health, treatment of breast cancers and sexually transmitted infections, and male participation in family planning among others are now available to the people.

Aurora Gov. Bellaflor Angara-Castillo, in an unprecedented move, signed Provincial Ordinance No. 125, providing for the Aurora Reproductive Health Care Code of 2005, the local counterpart of last Congress' House Bill 4110, that was passed in the committee level but was overtaken by the national elections.

Unlike in Congress where legislators did not support the bill for fear of losing the fictitious Catholic vote being wielded by the Church, Angara-Castillo said, all members of the provincial council unanimously voted for the passage of the ordinance sponsored by Vice Gov. Annabelle Tangson last June 1.

The measure did not encounter opposition from any group in the course of the public hearings. "This means that by talking about issues with sobriety, without deliberately closing one's eyes and mind, one can easily understand this ordinance," Angara-Castillo pointed out.

Present at the launch-forum, which was held in time for the August 1 Family Planning Day, were all the eight mayors of the province, members of the provincial board, municipal health officers, barangay health officials and some members of the Reproductive Health Advocacy Network-Family Planning Organization of the Philippines, Likhaan and ReachOut.

With the passage of the ordinance, the governor made true her promise that beginning the first year of her administration, her advocacy for reproductive health that she had fought for three years in Congress would find fulfillment in the province. Angara-Castillo was likewise the author of the Anti-Violence Against Women and their Children Act that was signed into law in 2004.

The provincial government has earmarked a minimum amount of five hundred thousand pesos as initial appropriation for the implementation of the program. Municipalities and barangays are expected as well to appropriate funds for the program's success.

Giving his response in the forum, Mayor Mariano C. Tangson said, "The Municipality of San Luis and all other municipalities must allocate funds for the immediate, systematic and effective implementation of the ordinance that not only guarantees the health of the mother and child, but also looks at the wellbeing of the family in its entirety."

Provincial Health Officer Dr. Norma Palmero reported that the shortage of family planning supplies being experienced in the country had not been felt in Aurora, as Gov. Angara-Castillo had allocated funds for family planning in preparation for the phase out after the United States ceased grants and donations for contraceptives. Palmero then urged the men in the forum to help in their vasectomy campaign, a somewhat difficult task since their technical people who had not gone through the experience had a hard time pushing for the method. Although vasectomy or male sterilization is an easier procedure compared to tubal ligation for women, very few men undergo such process.

Barangay health workers in the front line

Angara-Castillo was determined to bring the program to the grassroots level where people are most in need of these services, and to provide them with informed choice. Thus, the ordinance enlists the active involvement of BHWs in the door-to-door survey and provision of information in the communities on every family planning method, natural or artificial, so that people can choose and make decisions for themselves with respect to their family's religious belief.

Provincial Federation of BHWs Pres. Norita Bitay said during the forum that all 1,128 BHWs in the province support the ordinance for they believe that apart from their designated job, a BHW is an educator, service provider and community organizer in any program involving health.

Moreover, all in-school and out-of-school youth in the province shall be provided reproductive health and sexuality education, while unwed/single/married parents, future spouses, live-in partners, government officials and employees, couple whose spouse is detained in the provincial jail and applicants for employment are required to undergo responsible parenthood counseling.

The state of Aurora

The least populated province in the region with a population of 200,000, Aurora's annual growth rate is 2.6 percent, greater than the alarming national growth rate of 2.36 percent.

"Aurora has a large youth demographic base with 43 percent of the total population younger than 15 years of age," Angara-Castillo said.

A study she commissioned prior to the issue of an ordinance suggested a need to immediately address gaps in reproductive health care.

Maternal mortality rate in the province is 198 per 100,000 live birth, which is way above the national average of 172 per 100,000 live birth.

Infant mortality rate is recorded at a high 55.07 per 1,000 live birth, while child mortality rate is at 76.95. Aurora ranks 69th among 79 provinces with fully immunized children.

"There is high unmet need for family planning here, with majority of women who want no more children, not practicing contraception. Lack of information and access to high quality family planning services account for this."

Despite significant developments in addressing gender concerns, low unequal status of women prevails.

The Reproductive Health Ordinance is one of the governor's 6-point agenda, HEALTH, which stands for Health, Education, Agriculture, Livelihood, Tourism and Human development. Provincial executive officials are scheduled to finish the Implementing Rules and Regulations by end August, after which they will proceed with orientations, capability-building, especially among BHWs, and the full refinement of the program.

The Aurora Reproductive Health Care Program is the model reproductive health policy and program that RH advocates hope other LGUs and even national government could emulate or reproduce.

Side trip

The 8-hour long (stops included), zigzag and bumpy ride to Aurora may be daunting to any first-time visitor in the province. But that weary feeling is soon lost as lush and green landscape greets your arrival.

Snuggled between profuse forests of the Sierra Madre and the bountiful waters of the Pacific, Aurora boasts of awesome sights - caves, lofty waterfalls, natural rock formations, clean beaches, rivers and lakes.

Balete Park located in Maria Aurora municipality holds the 600-year old banyan tree, the largest of its kind in Asia. It takes 60 adults, holding one another at arm's length, to encircle its gigantic trunk. What is more, a small group of people can enter and actually fit inside its trunk.

Sabang Beach, a long stretch of gray sand dotted with various resorts, is one of Aurora's three surf sites recognized internationally. It was here where the first surfing competition in the country was held, a fact unknown to many. Local and international surfers are drawn in from October to February as the best waves come around these months. February is also the time for the annual Aurora Surfing Cup. A boardwalk is being built for the competition so that judges will not have to ride bancas anymore to get a closer look on the contending surfboarders.

Not very far from this area lie at least three islets that comprise the rock formations known to the locals as "Lukso-Lukso."

Ermita Hill is the site of a proposed park that will feature view decks affording one an excellent view of the town of Baler, Sabang Beach, Cemento and Dimadimalangat islet. A grotto here houses a miraculous statue, which, local devotees believe, protected the community at the height of an attack.

Other tourism projects underway include cleaning up the beaches, growing mangroves around the shoreline, erecting a tourism center, road repair, air transportation exploration and other infrastructures.

Aurora Province may have barely recovered from the tragedy that devastated her eight months ago, but with a leader, who has done quite a lot in one year, at the helm, perhaps the people of Aurora can now look forward to the light at the end of the tunnel.