DSWD chief won’t toe Church line, backs RH bill

BAGUIO CITY—Social Welfare Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman declared full support for efforts to carry out population programs that have put her boss, President Benigno Aquino III, into trouble with leaders of the Catholic Church.

During a visit here on Friday, Soliman said she fully supports the passage of the controversial reproductive health (RH) bill pending in Congress and stands by programs that would help government cope with a growing population.

“Former Social Welfare and Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral stood by her position to support responsible parenthood,” Soliman said. “We will continue to support that position.”

She said faced with an ever-growing population, the government should have family planning at the forefront of its programs.

“We are the ones who are feeling the consequences of unplanned pregnancy, like babies being born and abandoned by their parents. We are the ones who are feeding children who cannot be fed properly. We are the ones who are taking care of minors… who have to be rehabilitated after committing crimes… We are the ones who are looking after victims of trafficking,” Soliman said.

She said educating parents on family planning is one way of decreasing the number of street children, who have made begging a livelihood for their families.

“We are being unfair to our children if we could not feed them well. We are being unfair to them if we cannot provide for their basic needs and if we cannot raise them decently,” Soliman said.

She said one of the targets of the Aquino administration was to reduce the number of women dying during childbirth.

Death rate

A report from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFP) showed that at least 4,600 women die while giving birth yearly in the Philippines.

Ramon San Pascual, executive director of the Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development Foundation, said maternal mortality rate could fall by 30 percent “if you allow family planning among couples.”

He said natural family planning was one of the features of the RH bill which, he said, “is not about abortion.”

Former Health Undersecretary Ethelyn Nieto, a UNFP consultant, said no woman well-informed on family planning would resort to abortion.

“This is all about informed choice for mothers,” she said. –Desiree Caluza, Inquirer Northern Luzon