Although she lost her Cabinet post under President Aquino?s watch, former Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral?s steadfast stance on sensitive issues has amply demonstrated what a strong political will can do.

ALL too soon, the euphoria among health workers and women?s groups was over.

When President Benigno Simeon "Noynoy" Aquino announced his choice of National Kidney Institute Executive Director Enrique Ona as Health Secretary over incumbent Esperanza Cabral, HIV-AIDS educators, community health workers, advocates of reproductive health and anti-tobacco groups were dismayed.

They had found an ally in the cardiologist who, in the five months she was in office, fearlessly waded into public uproar with her decisive stand on tinderbox issues that her male predecessors didn?t even dares touch.

?She has inspired us,? says Dr. Florence Tadiar, CEO of the Institute for Social Studies and Action (ISSA), an advocacy, training and research group that supports reproductive health, gender equality and justice.

?Under Sec. Cabral, we saw how the Health department summoned up the political will to push for the implementation of Philippine commitments to several UN conventions on women?s health concerns. She gave us cause to be thankful in our job of providing the means to contraception and the prevention of HIV-AIDS,? says Tadiar, the former president of the Women?s Health Foundation.

Indeed, hardly had the former Social Welfare secretary warmed her seat at DOH when she caused a furor with the distribution of condoms by her staff on Valentine?s Day. The bishops went apoplectic.

?The culture and morality of society will be endangered under her,? warned Bishop Dinualdo Gutierrez. ?First, she does not respect the big number of Catholics in the country who oppose the distribution of condoms. Second, is she Catholic? I doubt that she is. Because if you are a Catholic and in the government, you should be living the teachings of the Church. But she is doing the opposite,? Gutierrez added.

Cabral, fulminated Sorsogon Bishop Arturo Bastes in a radio interview, ?is promoting immorality and physical sickness instead of health in soul and body.?

Cabral was undeterred. ?During my briefing, I found out about the tremendous increase in HIV-AIDS (incidence) figures and realized that we would have a raging epidemic on our hands soon,? she recalls. ?I also learned that the C for condoms in the ABC AIDS awareness campaign wasn?t being implemented and that the Global Fund (for AIDS) contract specifies that (government) spend money on condoms. So I told my staff to think of something to make a strong statement because Valentine?s Day was coming up. On February 13, they distributed condoms to the public. I was out of the country when it happened, but I supported the activity.?

The move, the DOH later clarified, was not meant to promote artificial contraception, but was a reminder to the public of the importance of responsible sexual behavior in combating the threat of HIV/AIDS.

The ?Ingat Lagi, My Valentine? campaign held at the Dangwa Flower Market in Manila was described as ?vulgar? and ?immoral? by the Catholic Church, but found support from the non-government organization Catholics for Choice. The organization?s president, Jon O? Brien, described Cabral?s action as a gesture of genuine concern. He added that it recognizes the people?s ability to choose for themselves when it comes to issues affecting their health.

Cabral has been as outspoken in her support for reproductive health. ?I?ve always felt that it is the right of women to decide for themselves how many children to have and when, and the responsibility of government to provide them the means to make the right choices,? she says.

Her own choice was ?to have three children every three years, and to stop at 33,? she says, paraphrasing the population campaign during the Marcos years. ?It meant, space your children properly and have them when you?re still young. I always analyze advice and if it?s sensible, I do it. That?s why I stopped at 31, I believe na tama yun.?

But it?s not just from a personal perspective that she believes in family planning, says this 1986 Outstanding Women in the Nation?s Service awardee in Medicine.

Family planning is one of the Health department?s thrusts, says Cabral, as it has to do with the reduction of infant and maternal mortality. It is also one of the goals of the country?s Medium-Term Development Plan and is part of our commitment to the United Nations? Millennium Development Goals, she adds.

She has nothing against the Catholic Church?s support for natural family planning methods, Cabral says, ?But the bishops should not impose their beliefs on the people. Survey after survey shows that Filipinos favor artificial contraception.?

Cabral?s support for the controversial sex education modules in some public schools hardly endeared her to the bishops as well. But she remains convinced that it is a sound addition to the curriculum of grade schoolers.

?We need it for the protection of our children,? she says. ?Young children are very vulnerable to abuse, especially sexual abuse from people they know if they have no understanding of what is private, and what they should do about (such abuses). Paano na if they don?t know about these things??

Cabral?s strong position on some issues that run counter to the bishops? pronouncements have prompted some quarters to cast doubts on her faith. Is she Catholic? How can she consciously go against the teachings of the Catholic Church?

?Because I?m a Catholic with a conscience,? she says unequivocally. ?At the end of the day, according to my religion, you have a free will and you should follow your conscience.?

The results of the recent elections ?showed that many Catholic voters exercised their free will,? she adds, apparently referring to how several candidates known for their opposition to the Reproductive Health Bill lost their bid for public office despite strong support from the Catholic Church.

As if she didn?t have enough enemies, Cabral also went hammer and tongs after tobacco companies and insisted on implementing an Administrative Order 2010-13 on the need for graphic warnings against smoking on cigarette packs.

The tobacco companies promptly got a temporary restraining order on the AO that should have been in effect starting June 10. On July 1, the Marikina Trial Court granted Fortune Tobacco?s prayer for a preliminary injunction against the AO, which effectively suspends its implementation.

?I expected them to fight back,? says Cabral of the tobacco companies. ?I?m not telling them not to make money, but not at the expense of others.?

President Aquino?s smoking habit doesn?t help, she adds. ?That?s an addiction to nicotine and the message is, ?I can be an addict to something because it?s my way of relieving pressure.? Of course it?s an individual decision, but it?s not helping the No Smoking campaign.?

Cabral next went after herbal food supplements, issuing Administrative Order 2010-0008 in March that would replace the warning ?No Approved Therapeutic Claims? on the labels of herbal food supplement products. Instead, they should now sport the more accessible and truthful advisory that cautions consumers against treating the product as medicine: ?Mahalagang Paalala: Ang (name of product) ay hindi gamot at hindi dapat gamiting panggamot sa anumang uri ng sakit (Important reminder: The (name of product) is not a medication and should not be used to treat any kind of illness).?

Although the Chamber of Herbal Industries in the Philippines Inc. went to court and obtained a preliminary injunction against the enforcement of Cabral?s order, TV commercials of such products now sport the revised advisory in Filipino.

Is there any issue that this staunch opposition columnist during martial law wouldn?t touch? Is she as fearless as supporters say she is?

No, she says crisply. ?I am afraid of all of them?the bishops, the tobacco magnates, the herbal supplements industry, and so on, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do. What I do is not dependent on people?s support unless I see some validity in their objections.?

Adds Cabral: ?I don?t want to make enemies, but I always do the right thing.?

For one who has been in government for some time (she was appointed head of the Philippine Heart Center during President Cory Aquino?s time and was Arroyo?s Social Welfare secretary for three years), Cabral?s work ethic?her unflagging can-do attitude and insistence on doing things right?has surprised many who?ve grown cynical of government service.

She attributes her unswerving political will to three factors: ?First, my upbringing, because my parents were progressive thinkers who let me decide on my own. Second, my education as a doctor that trained me to make decisions based on evidence and facts. And third, my experience as a doctor that allowed me to see how people are suffering and to empathize with their hapless conditions. In medical school at UP, I was assigned to Bay, Laguna and got exposed to the poor living conditions of the people. I got more of that exposure as a DSWD secretary.?

But alas, just when things were starting to look up and people had hoped that their health concerns would be addressed at last, came news that Cabral would be replaced by Ona, who has made it known that his priority would be the wider coverage of Philhealth medical insurance.

Not that she wasn?t ready for it. Weeks before the inauguration of the new President, Cabral says she was working on the presumption ?that my last day in office is June 30.?

If not retained, she says in the same interview, she intends to go back to private practice ?but first, I?d take a vacation, then I?d join Justice (Reynato) Puno?s Bantay-Apo movement (laughs). I?m 66 years old, I have three grown-up children, with their own families and 6 grandchildren.?

As for her advocacies, ?I will always find a way to push them.?

Any regrets? ?I try not to regret things coz I think that?s a waste of time. It?s done, but I learn lessons from them.?

Life, apparently, will be as full for the former Health secretary even without a government portfolio. But good luck to her successor?she is definitely a tough act to follow.