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BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
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Monday, January 16, 2017
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ILOILO City – Responsible parenthood is about couples making informed choices on which family planning method is best for them, according to the Department of Health (DOH) Region 6.
At almost 70 percent, mothers in Western Visayas have high unmet needs in so far as modern family planning is concerned, said Dr. Marlyn Convocar, regional director.
She expressed confidence that President Rodrigo Duterte’s Executive No. 12 will address this.
In a bid to make modern family planning available to the poor by 2018, the President signed the executive order providing funds and support for modern family planning.
“This Order aims to intensify and accelerate the implementation of critical actions necessary to attain and sustain ‘zero unmet need for modern family planning’ for all poor households by 2018,” read part of Executive Order No. 12 signed on Jan. 9.
According to Convocar, Western Visayan mothers wanted to limit the number of their children to three or four and space their pregnancies but were having a hard time achieving these.
The President’s executive order, she said, can help in this regard.
“They will be able to make informed choices on which family planning methods to take. The wife and the husband will decide what is best for them. This is really the essence of responsible parenthood,” stressed Convocar.
A comprehensive review of couples and individuals in need of family planning services is one of the strategies the executive order outlined.
Convocar said they have targets in each province and city in Western Visayas, plus Negros Occidental.
The Philippines has six million women, of which two million are poor, that “have unmet need for any modern method of contraception, and remain unable to fully exercise their reproductive rights,” part of the executive order read, citing Philippine Statistics Authority findings from 2013.
The order called for DOH, Commission on Population and Department of Interior and Local Government to map areas and locate individuals with unmet family planning needs, mobilize local structures, conduct demand generation and referral activities, and partner with the private sector.
PhilHealth will “implement benefit packages that ensure maximum benefits for family planning services” while the Philippine Commission on Women is expected to “promote reproductive health rights.”/PN
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