Forum for family planning

Here are the latest facts on our population as released by the Commission on Population, and they are cause for concern. The Philippine population hits 84.2 million this year, but Filipinos who could barely survive make up almost a third of this number. Young people 21 years and below make up half the population that increases yearly by 1.8 millio.

More than five million families or 27 million individuals have incomes that cannot sustain their basic food and shelter needs. By World Bank standards, they live by one US dollar a day.

According to PopCom Executive Director Tomas M. Osias, because of a huge population of childbearing age and upcoming generations reaching adolescence and young adulthood, families will continue to have many dependents that could exceed the current average of five members per household.

For every 10 Filipinos who are in the working age group 15 to 64, says Osias, there are six others who depend on them for food and other basic needs. Of the six, five are 15 years old and below and one is an elderly.

Osias says, "A large number of dependents worsens poverty, and poverty aggravates the continuing depletion of the environment. Poverty will drive millions of poor Filipinos to overexploit what remains of their resources. If this continues, there is little chance for them to give something back to their environment for it to regenerate."

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Responding to the reality of the galloping rate of our population growth and the need to do something about it, a group of concerned individuals has formed The Forum for Family Planning and Development Inc. The Forum was launched yesterday, with former President Fidel V. Ramos inducting the board of trustees and advisers.

The Forum’s vision is to make the Philippines "a recognized center that will create situations and opportunities for the convergence of efforts and provides that will provide services and information for couples seeking population, reproductive health, and family planning services, particularly those living in poverty-stricken areas."

The Forum will endeavor to make population, reproductive health, and family planning issues an integral part of appropriate programs and activities of government and the private sector. Towards this end, it will spearhead lobby activities at the topmost level of governance (i.e. the executive and legislative branches and government) and at the community level, the lowest level of program implementation.

Undersecretary Benjamin de Leon is president of the Forum, and Dr. Corazon M. Raymundo and Tom Osias are secretary and treasurer, respectively. Among the advisers are Washington Z. Sycip, Edgardo A. Bautista, Peter L. Wallace, Mercedes B. Concepcion, Dante B. Canlas, Jose G. Rimon II, and Toshio Kuroda.

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The election of candidates who are supportive of population and reproductive health measures indicates that Filipino voters favor legislators who push for policies that enrich the lives of the majority. As Marjorie Villa, media relations officer of the Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Poulation and Development, put it,"Clearly, majority of our voters are already taking notice of the gravity of our population and reproductive health situation."

Long before the start of the electoral campaign, there were reported threats of Roman Catholic Church officials campaigning against candidates who promote the use of contraceptives. Such threats would be negated by the findings of the Ulat ng Bayan Survey on Family Planning conducted by Pulse Asia February, which showed that 97 per cent of the 1,800 respondents favored candidates who support programs for family planning. I like to think that the election of the supposed targets of censure shows that people, guided by their conscience, want to practice family planning and thus voted pro-choice candidates.

Our congratulations to the winners, led by Sen. Rodolfo G. Biazon, who bravely championed the Reproductive Health Care and Integrated Population and Development bills in the Senate. Representative Bellaflor Angara-Castillo, the bills‚ supporter in the House of Congress, won her bid for the gubernatorial seat in Aurora. Other elected candidates who are expressly for family planning and reproductive health programs, are Reps. JR Nereus Acosta (1st Dictrict, Bukidnon), Nerissa Soon-Ruiz (6th District, Cebu), Gilbert Remulla (2nd District, Cavite), Rozzano Biazon (Lond District, Muntinlupa), Emilio Macias (2nd District, Negros Oriental), and Jose Carlos Lacson (3rd District, Negros Occidental).

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