Survey on best family planning method urged

MANILA, Philippines – With various groups having heated debates on the reproductive health bill, Commission on Population (PopCom) executive director Tomas Osias recently said a survey must be conducted to determine which family planning method is effective.

Osias said the country’s population growth rate (PGR) went down from 2.36 percent in 2000 to 2.04 percent in 2007 but no explanation has been given for the decline.

He said it is better to know which “family planning practice” caused this decline without necessarily promoting a specific method over another.

“I think we have to conduct such a survey to determine which practice contributed to the reduction in our PGR. But we don’t want to make a conclusion that this particular method is better than the other. It’s not that,” Osias said in an interview.

Osias maintained that both artificial and scientific natural family planning must be promoted equally so couples could best choose which method suits them.

He added the survey must focus on the effects of migration, education, employment and delayed marriage on population, as these are believed to have contributed to the reduction in the PGR.

Filipino youth now marry at a later age compared to before, and more women tend to abstain from sex so as not to lose opportunities to work abroad due to pregnancy.

The PopCom, an agency attached to the Department of Health, also reported that it was able to reach out to a total of 152,783 couples in 7,907 barangays in its campaign for responsible parenting and natural family planning.

Meantime, Rep. Edcel Lagman, who introduced the proposed Reproductive Health Care Act, said the bill appears to be gaining widespread support as the time has come for the Philippines to take family planning seriously.

“Despite what the church is saying, Filipino people, especially the poor, want family planning,” he said.

So far, more than 25 percent of the 238 House members have signed the bill and many more are said to be supporting it verbally.

The Catholic Church, however, is campaigning against the bill.

In a related development, Catholic bishops continue to point out that condoms cannot stop the spread of AIDS.

Fr. Melvin Castro, executive secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines Episcopal Commission on Family and Life, said AIDS is prevalent in Thailand and Africa where the use of condoms is being promoted.

Castro called on the government to stop giving “false security” to the people that condoms could contain the spread of AIDS-causing HIV.

The Church believes the best way to avoid HIV/AIDS is abstinence from sex, behavioral change and monogamous partnerships of men and women, he added.

San Fernando, Pampanga Archbishop Paciano Aniceto said there is no scientific basis for the health department’s claim that the condom is 100 percent effective or “safe” against AIDS.

“The decision ironically coincides with a recently published statement by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, one of the leading foreign promoters of population control in the Philippines, complaining that the Philippine government had not been buying contraceptives,” he said.

Sen. Pia Cayetano is batting for safe sex education for all Filipinos, especially those working abroad. – With Sandy Araneta, Evelyn Macairan, Aurea Calica