What ails RP family planning program?

The weakest point of the Philippines’ family planning program is the lack of "political commitment" on the part of the country’s leaders.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has expressed concern over the country’s population growth, saying that "stronger" population management is needed to ease the worsening poverty in the Philippines.

UNFPA country representative Dr. Zahidul Huque said that while there are many highly motivated people in the country who are committed and motivated to do something at the "grassroots level" to address the problem of a population explosion, efforts to limit family size is constrained by the lack of political support from the government.

As a policy of the Arroyo administration, the national government does not make any budgetary allocation for purchasing contraceptives for distribution at health centers — leaving it up to the local government units (LGUs) to buy contraceptives for public distribution.

President Arroyo is a devout Catholic and has decided to favor the promotion of natural family planning methods in deference to the Catholic Church, which is strongly opposed to the use of contraceptives.

"There is no reason we cannot do something to really have a slow population growth," Huque said. "When that happens, it will have more impact on the economy."

"The population has already exploded. We have 84 million in population — that’s too many already," Huque said in an ambush interview during the World Population Day celebration the other day.

This year’s celebration was anchored in the theme "Making motherhood safer: Caring for mothers in their time of need."

Huque warned that, given the country’s annual population growth rate of 2.3 percent, the population is likely to double in 25 years. The population hits the 84-million mark this year, with 1.7 million Filipinos born each year.

He said the Philippines is lagging "far behind" Thailand, where the population growth rate has been pegged at over 1.1 percent. In the 1970s, Thailand and the Philippines were on an even footing.

Population Commission (Popcom) director Tomas Osias said that unlike the Philippines, Thailand managed to maintain "breathing space" in its population growth, enabling its government to put its economic growth on the fast track.

"The Philippines and Thailand were actually on similar demographic didends in the 1970s," Osias said. "Most of the people were young then but Thailand managed to keep births at a moderate level, so it was able to invest more in people."

He added that the Philippines’ increasing population has depleted the country’s resources, limiting investment in health, education, employment and other social services.

Meanwhile, the Department of Health (DOH), which once present a strong lobby for the use of contraceptives in family planning, has embarked on a self-reliance" program to soften the impact of the United States Agency for International Aid (USAID) plan to stop donating contraceptives to the Philippines.

Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit said the self-reliance scheme will prepare the Philippines for the withdrawal of the USAID’s support for the country’s population control program and will help minimize the "dole-out" mentality prevalent among Filipinos.

"We are receiving reports that there are donated contraceptives that are not being distributed to the public," Dayrit said. "They just get expired in the health centers. Some are even used as toys — inflated like balloons."

After 30 years of supporting the Philippines’ family planning program, USAID decided to stop donating contraceptives when it realized the country relied too much on its donations.

The USAID stopped supplying the country with condoms last year and the last shipment of donated contraceptive pills is scheduled for 2007.

The initiative to get Filipinos to become self-reliant when it comes to family planning and buying their own contraceptives is now being studied by a technical working group created by the DOH.

Private organizations advocating family planning are represented in the group.

One of the strategies that aim to create a climate favorable to making both natural and artificial family planning methods available to all Filipinos is "market segmentation" or a socialized pricing scheme for contraceptives, DOH Family Planning Office (FPO) chief Dr. Honorata Catibog said.

Under this scheme, contraceptives will be given out for free to indigent couples, but will be sold to those who can afford to buy the contraceptives at prices based on the couples’ incomes.

"Nothing is final yet," Catibog said. "We’re still looking for all the possible means."