Friday, April 27, 2007 Candidates urged to adopt family planning platform
FRUSTRATED by the lack of interest of candidates vying for various positions at the local and national level in promoting family planning (FP) in their platform for governance, the Philippine Legislators Committee on Population and Development Foundation (PLCPDF) has reiterated its advocacy that family planning and reproductive health care must be a part of every candidate's platform.
In a press forum, PLCPDF deputy executive director Romeo Dongeto lamented that family planning and reproductive health care has never been considered as a priority program of any candidate, although majority of them are aware of the implications and risks of having an unmanageable population brought about by unplanned pregnancies by either married or unmarried couples.
The health and well-being of a mother and her child, as well as the mortality rate, are also issues that have to be addressed but lacked the necessary support because of the lack of priority programs, Dongeto added.
But Dongeto stressed that studies would show that issues on family planning are among those prioritized by Filipinos. Citing a March 2007 Pulse Asia survey, Dongeto said nine out of 10 Filipinos consider FP as an important factor in a candidate's platform and nine out 10 Filipinos also believe that government support is needed for the procurement of modern methods of birth control.
Kalayaan Constantino of the Anakpawis party-list group also stressed the importance of having a national FP policy.
"An increasing population exacerbates poverty," Constantino said, as she cited various studies that showed that families with more than seven children are poorer than families with two or three children.
She also dispelled notions that more people translate to increased productivity. For this to happen, Constantino stressed, investments have to be in place. And with the rate of unemployment in the country, investments are not enough to meet the demands of the labor force.
She said that while the government used to aggressively promote FP, religion caused a setback in this program of the government because the present administration chose to take on a softer stance upon the Roman Catholic Church's intervention.
However, Constantino said that couples should be given the choice which type of FP to choose, whether it be the natural or artificial method.
"A certain group of men should not dictate policy on FP," she said. (RO)
