Saturday, April 21, 2007 Poll bets fear backlash, shun family planning issue
FAMILY planning advocates question why candidates in the May 14 elections keep away from reproductive health issues when close to 80 percent of Filipinos consider it an important aspect in a candidate’s platform.
This was the result of the March 2007 Pulse Asia nationwide survey on family planning.
In the Visayas, seven out of 10 believe that “inclusion of family planning in candidates’ programs of action (is) important.”
Only seven percent of Filipinos say it is not important while 17 percent are undecided.
The Pulse Asia survey also revealed that more than half of the respondents believe a candidate’s support for family planning determines his success in seeking an electoral post.
“Filipinos consider family planning highly important; a clear majority thinks government should adopt a more active stance regarding family planning by allocating budgets,” the survey result read.
Nine in 10 Filipinos have this stance.
“We are trying to tell the candidates that they have nothing to fear,” said Faith Bacon of the Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development Foundation Inc. (PLCPD), who presented the results of the survey to the media yesterday.
Bacon said PLCPD intends to popularize the results of the survey in hopes of getting more candidates to support reproductive health advocacies.
Candidates reportedly do not support family planning issues for fear of a backlash from the Catholic Church. But according to the survey, the church should not interfere in matters concerning family planning.
“A plurality of Filipinos (44 percent) believes that the Church should not participate in the discussion of family planning methods couples are to use, while 33 percent believe otherwise,” read the survey result. The rest are undecided on the matter.
Pulse Asia also revealed that much of the results are linked to the belief of half of the Filipinos that “rapid population growth hinders the country’s development.”
The country’s population growth rate is at 2.36 percent, according to a report by Commission on Population (PopCom 7) Director Leo Rama.
The figure is slightly higher in Region 7 at 2.79 percent but lower in Cebu City at 1.77 percent.
Fertility figures have been declining throughout the years, but Rama said it is still high.
It went down from 4.4 percent in 1993, to 3.6 percent in 1999, and 3.1 percent in 2005.
As a result, one in six pregnancies ends up in abortion because they are unplanned or unwanted, said Rama.
Meanwhile, aside from reelectionist Rep. Nerissa Soon-Ruiz (Cebu, 6th district), a member of PLCPD, there are no clear candidates in Cebu yet who might get the support of the organization.
PLCPD has yet to finalize its political map, which will help identify candidates who are willing to work on population and reproductive health issues.
But Dr. Filemon Alberca, who is running for Provincial Board member in Cebu’s second district, may become a frontrunner for PLCPD’s support.
He joined the organization in the news conference yesterday and promised to revive the provincial population office if he gets elected.
Alberca also promised to address the problem of abortion. (JGA)
