THE regional office of the Commission on Population (Popcom) in Davao Region continues to strengthen its campaign in delivering right information about Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health services among Dabawenyos through community engagement down to the grassroots level.
Based on their data in 2017 until June 2018, there were a total of 29,578 clients who had unmet needs for family planning.
Popcom-Davao and program partners also conducted 29,410 Responsible parenthood and Family Planning (RPFP) classes to 298,891 Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4PS) and non-4Ps recipients through the conduct of Family Development Sessions (FDS), house to house visitation, Usapan Serye, pre-marriage counseling and other demand-generation activities.
“Family planning is a human right and everybody has the right in planning a family. It is also the duty of the Commission of Population to give the right information and for the Department of Health to give the services,” Popcom regional director bai Agnes Sampulna said on Monday, July 09, 2018.
She said that July 11 is the celebration of the World Population Day, an international event that aims to increase people’s awareness on the urgency and importance of various population issues such as family planning, reproductive health, gender equality, poverty, maternal and child health and human rights.
Anchored on the theme, “Family Planning is a Human Right”, this year also marks the 50th anniversary of the 1968 International Conference on Human Rights which is dubbed as the Tehran Proclamation, where family planning as, for the first time, globally affirmed to be a human right.
This annual commemoration began on July 11, 1987, known as the “Five Billion Day”, when the world’s population reached five billion. As of July 2018, it has reached to 7.7 billion worldwide.
Based on the 2015 Population Census by the Philippine Statistics Authority, Philippines had over 100 million total population and in Davao Region alone, the population has reached 4.8 million.