THE City Council is calling on all barangay health workers (BHW), barangay nutrition scholars, day care workers and members of the Barangay Women
Development Councils (BWDCs) to support the City Government's Responsible Parenthood-Natural Family Planning (RP-NFP) program.
Councilor Dante B. Pajo, chair of the City Council Committee on Health, said RP-NFP promotes natural family planning that is allowed by the Church.
Pajo said the city is holding a two-day Service Provider Training as he called on the barangay workers to attend and be educated with the program.
The training helps the stakeholders effectively implement RP-NFP and re-echo it to other health workers in the barangays.
The training will tackle the different natural family planning methods such as the Basal Body Temperature (BBT), the Standard Day's Method (SDM), Lactational Amenorrhea Method (LAM) and Cervical Mucus Method (CMM).
A series of trainings would be held on August 4 to 6 in Barangay Macabalan; on
August 11 to 13 in Barangays Gusa and Cugman; August 18 to 20 in Barangay
Kauswagan; and August 25 to 27 in Barangay Bonbon.
Pajo said he is discouraging the use of contraceptives such as condoms, intra-uterine device (IUD), and other forms of contraception that would create a bad impression of the Church.
"The Church is not against the goal of family planning neither it is for large families. The Church does have objections to methods of birth control that are deemed as un-natural or artificial," Pajo said.
Earlier, Cagayan de Oro Archbishop Antonio Ledesma said natural family planning is the Church's approved method, whether or not the government promotes it.
"The Church can and should always make clear its own stand - which includes respecting the freedom of choice and the dictates of conscience of married couples, Catholic or non-Catholic. These principles are also recognized by government agencies along with the clear constitutional prohibition against abortion," Ledesma said.