Businessmen should be concerned

The correlation of extremely rapid population growth to the increase in the incidence of poverty among Filipinos has been a subject of debate – on some occasions with tongs and forks – between antagonists and protagonists. Yesterday, a long-table full of businessmen spent the morning listening to resource persons give data on why they should be concerned over the population issue. The bottom line was that showing concern over the reproductive health of their workers would result in a more productive labor force and savings for business and industry.

Peter Wallace, a social commentator and environmentalist who has been living in the Philippines for over 30 years, ticked off data from key findings of the 2003 National Demographic and Health Survey, and the data are quite perplexing to those who worry about the country’s having much too many mouths than our resources can feed.

Who wouldn’t worry about 11 million Filipinos being hungry in the last three months; of 18 million being undernourished, and 25.4 living in poverty, some 7 million are earning less than the minimum wage. Animals procreate mindlessly, said Peter, but man has the ability to use his mind. "We believe God gave man a mind to think of the consequences of his actions."

Demographer Cory Raymundo echoed Peter’s concern. She said that if the current population growth rate of 2.3 per cent continues, the country’s population of 84 million will double in 29 years. "Whatever problems may arise in the future, the economy will have more resources to deal with them with a lower population growth rate than with a faster rate."

On fertility, Cory said the average number of children a woman has is generally high, which is one more child than they actually desire.

The less educated women and those found in the rural areas tend to have more children than their counterparts, she said. Why? Cory did not say because these women have no other mode of recreation and no electric lights in their houses that’s why they engage in productive sex more than their counterparts in the urban areas. Her answer was these women do not have access to information about family planning methods, or to the methods themselves.

Yesterday’s meeting was organized by the Forum for Family Planning and Develop-ment with the cooperation of the Industrial Relations Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, on the theme, "The Population Problem: Why Businessmen Should Be Concerned."

There are government initiatives to encourage companies to look after their workers’ welfare. The Labor Code (1974), Art. 134, states that "establishments employing 200 or more workers will put up or maintain a clinic or infirmary that shall provide family planning services to their employees."

The Department of Labor issued Order 56-03 on Dec. 11, 2003, to rationalize the implementation of the Family Welfare Program. Earlier, in 1986, the Population/Family Welfare Program was aimed to improve the quality of life of Filipino workers. Two years ago, in 2003, Dole broadened the priorities from concentrating on family planning alone to embrace 10 new priorities.

These priorities are: reproductive health and responsible parenthood, education/gender equality, medical health care, environmental protection, hygiene and sanitation, spirituality or value formation, income-generation/livelihood/cooperatives, nutrition, sports and leisure, housing, and transportation.

Cory took note of the definition of reproductive health – that it is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity in all matters relating to the reproductive system and to its functions and processes."

As to what constitutes reproductive health, Cory listed 10 elements: family planning, maternal and child health and nutrition, prevention and management of abortion and complications, prevention and management of reproductive tract infections, education and counseling on sexuality and sexual health, breast and reproductive tract cancers, men’s reproductive health, violence against women and children, adolescent and youth reproductive health, and prevention and treatment of infertility.

It was brought out that some employers think that family planning and reproductive health are "irrelevant" to their company survival and so do not implement DO 56-03. Ignorance of this has caused discrimination against unmarried women in family planning/reproductive health services, and of pregnancy of unmarried women as a ground for dismissal. Other realities are that some companies have no budget allocated for family welfare programs, and have a bias for natural family planning methods.

The businessmen were told that the negative effects of not promoting family planning include a high rate of employee turnover, absenteeism, increased health care costs and accidents and waste, increased recruitment and training costs and lower productivity/production.

The other side of the coin, or the positive effects of promoting family planning/reproductive health in the workplace are greater productivity, decreased absenteeism, tardiness and employee turnover, lower hiring and training costs, less workplace accidents, more harmonious working envi-ronment, and enhanced employee-employer relations.

Family planning services in companies translate to savings for the company. The UP study noted gross savings of from P940,000 to P1,313,00, to P306,000. Savings result from reduced maternity-related expenses, reduced demand for advanced maternity leave benefits and/or loans to pregnant employees, including expenses for hospitalization and caesarian deliveries.

The open forum was enlivened by discussion on family planning methods being used. Pro-life representatives indicated that church-approved natural family planning method be used.

Benjamin de Leon, president, FFPD, said that employees must be given access to information on all family planning methods, but it is the couples who make the final choice in deciding the size of their families. It would be unjust for companies not to provide family planning services to their employees. Surveys, he added, have shown that couples want to have fewer children, but they don’t know how.

Again, on high population growth rate and poverty, here’s food for thought from the authors of the paper, "Population and Poverty: The Real Score," of the University of the Philippines’ School of Economics. "Poverty is "a complex phenomenon, and many factors are responsible for it. Rapid population growth alone cannot explain poverty. And governance, high wealth and income inequality and weak economic growth are the main causes. But rapid population growth and high fertility rates, especially among the poor, do exacerbate poverty and make it harder for the government to address it. The government’s target of reducing poverty incidence to 20 per cent or lower by 2010 would not be feasible, given historical growth rates of population and the economy."

Companies who want to set up their FP/RH programs may contact Jose Miguel R. de la Rosa, FFPD executive director, tel. 632-634-7368.

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