DSWD services strained by ‘overpopulation ‘–Soliman

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines -— If there is one government agency that is feeling the impact of overpopulation, it is the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

Social Welfare Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman made the statement even as she expressed full support for the reproductive health bill in Congress.

“Former DSWD and Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral stood by her position to support responsible parenthood. We will continue to support that position,” Soliman told reporters here on Friday.

She said that with the country’s problems on its growing population, family planning should be at the forefront of the government’s 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 would be one of the ways 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 President Aquino has always been committed to implement poverty reduction programs to ease the lives of majority of Filipinos. Among the government’s targets are reducing the dropout rate in schools and improving health care and other related programs to ensure that the number of women dying of childbirth is lessened.

A report from the United Nations Population Fund shows that at least 4,600 women die while giving birth yearly.

Aurora Quiray, Cordillera director of the Commission on Population, said lack of attention given to the health of pregnant mothers has been one of the reasons for the country’s high maternal mortality rate.

“If you allow family planning among couples, maternal mortality rate would decrease by 30 percent. Natural family planning would also be given more weight in the reproductive health bill,” Ramon San Pascual, executive director of the Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development Foundation (PLCPD), said in a recent press forum here.

San Pascual said the RH bill “is not about abortion.”

Former Health Undersecretary Ethelyn Nieto, a UNFPA consultant, said no mother would resort to abortion if information about family planning was accessible.

“This is all about informed choice for mothers. We are giving them information on how to go about planning a family,” she said. –Desiree Caluza, Inquirer Northern Luzon