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Vol. 13, No. 45 - April 11, 2005
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Debate on population, birth control issues continues
Committee Source: POPULATION AND FAMILY RELATIONS
THE CLASH of opinions and ideas on population management and birth control is again brewing as the Committee on Population and Family Relations takes up two legislative proposals on the matter.
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Earlier this year, it was the Committee on Women which was in the thick of debates when it tackled bills on reproductive health. It had since concluded the debates after it approved the substitute bill and reported this out for plenary consideration.
Before Congress went on Lenten recess, the Committee on Population and Family Relation’s Subcommittee on Population and Ageing, headed by Romblon Rep. Eduardo Firmalo, started its deliberation on House Bills 1808 and 3422.
Respectively authored by Reps. JR Nereus Acosta (1st District, Bukidnon) and Rodolfo Agbayani (Nueva Vizcaya), the bills seek to address the country’s rapid population growth by establishing an integrated population and development policy and a program on family life and responsible parenthood.
Before the start of the deliberation, Rep. Firmalo appealed to the resource persons to present positions and recommendations anchored on empirical data and research. He said it is important to have an accurate and balanced discussion of issues involving population management.
Justifying his proposal to establish an integrated population and development policy, Rep. Acosta underscored the importance of addressing the country’s population problem citing statistical data which showed that the country has a total population of 82 million and currently ranks 12th among the most populated countries in the world.
He said the country’s rapid population growth impacts on its development and strains the government’s capacity to provide basic social services, to develop its rural areas and to stem the tide of rural to urban migration.
Rep. Acosta also stressed that the growing population is a crucial factor that needs to be addressed in the battle against intergenerational poverty, saying that 31 million Filipinos or roughly 39.4 percent of the population live on less than P50 a day.
He further said that the country’s unmanaged population growth has also impacted negatively on the environment’s various ecosystems.
Responsible parenthood
HB 3422, on the other hand, seeks to establish a family life program designed to support the family and contribute to its stability and harmony as well as to educate and inform married couples, the youth and the public at large on responsible parenthood.
Rep. Agbayani said through the program, couples would be informed of the natural family planning method and other modern family planning methods to help them determine the size of their family as well as the spacing of the birth of their children.
In conjunction with the two bills, the Subcommittee also tackled two privilege speeches delivered by Reps. Nerissa Corazon Soon-Ruiz (6th District, Cebu) and Rodante Marcoleta (Party List, Alagad).
Benefits women
In Rep. Soon-Ruiz’ speech delivered on the floor last August 3, 2004, she stressed the importance and benefits of family planning to both women and their families.
She said women who plan the number and timing of their childbirths enjoy improved health, experience pure and wanted pregnancies and births and have lower rates of abortions.
On the other hand, she said women with children spaced close together take the risk of maternal death and illness as there is insufficient time for them to regain their strength after giving birth.
The lady lawmaker also emphasized the need to put in place policies and programs which would provide access to information on family planning and services.
Not abortifacients
Rep. Marcoleta’s speech delivered on the floor last August 16, 2004 delved on the idea that a sound policy on population management shall be independent of any pressure from any agency or institution.
He averred that there is a compelling need to rationalize the advocacy of the Catholic hierarchy against artificial methods of birth control because medical science can prove that these are not abortifacients. They are preventive mechanisms that do not interfere with the advent of human life, he stressed.
He also underscored the need to harmonize the state’s demographic responsibility and the church’s secular concerns on the formation of families.
During the meeting, Rep. Acosta commented that while there are many different stands and perspectives on the issue of population growth, the population problem is definitely an issue that the society and the government must address.
Sound population policy
Rep. Marcoleta explained exhaustively his position that in order to have sustained economic development and social progress, the country needs a sound population management policy. He also said that the country’s limited resources cannot possibly serve all the needs of a growing population.
Dr. Emilio Javier of the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) said the measures are a restatement of the policy that recognizes population growth as one of the factors affecting the attainment of development and the reduction of poverty. He said the two bills show that access of the poor to basic services and the difficulty of government in providing them are closely linked to the sheer magnitude of the people to be served.
Orchestrated state effort
Javier further said that by involving government agencies in the population and development program, it underscores not only the importance of the problem but also the importance of an orchestrated state effort to deal with it.
For his part, Crisanto Frianeza of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) maintained that the population policy should zero in on the necessary information and education to help individuals and couples come up with an informed decision in managing their families.
He also informed the body that the PCCI has undertaken activities that revolve around the need to increase support for family planning, counseling and service delivery or referrals.
Also expressing support for the bills were representatives from the University of the Philippines Population Institute, Family Planning Organization of the Philippines, Philippine Legislators Committee on Population Development (PLCPD) and Forum for Family Planning and Development Inc.
The representatives from the Departments of Health (DOH), Finance (DOF) and Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Population Commission (PopCom) also supported the two bills.
Meanwhile, Dr. Ligaya Acosta of Human Life International Asia, narrated her experience as a program manager for natural family planning at the DOH in Eastern Visayas. She said she used to be an avid promoter of contraceptives and a believer of population control until her training on natural family planning exposed her face to face with the horrible and evil effects of contraception.
Protest vs “Ligtas Buntis”
She told the body that she decided to leave the DOH in protest of its “Ligtas Buntis” campaign, which she described as very deceptive. She said she came to watch videos and read materials which showed very clearly that contraceptives, particularly the IUD and pills, are abortifacient. She also heard stories of death and serious illness attributed to the use of birth control pills and IUDs.
The lady physician, however, clarified that she is not saying that couples should not plan their families. She said there is a difference between family planning and population control.
Family planning, she pointed out, implies that decisions are made by couples taking into account their own beliefs and circumstances regarding the number and spacing of their own children. In contrast, population control is implemented by the government and international agencies which have their own ides on the number of children couples ought to have.
In other words, Acosta averred, family planning gives couples control over their reproductive health while population control forces couples to relinquish this control to the government and international agencies.
On the query of the chair, Acosta professed that her statements made before the body were based on evidence and not borne out of personal convictions.
Rep. Eduardo Zialcita (1st District, Parañaque City), in support of Acosta, pointed out that the time limit imposed on her prevented the presentation of more facts, testimonies and data.
Reps. Janette Garin (1st District, Iloilo) and Hermilando Mandanas (2nd District, Batangas) agreed with the earlier remarks of the chair that only statements backed by concrete proof or data should be made in view of the limited time given to each resource person.
Doctrines internal to the church
For her part, lawyer Jo Imbong of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said that the church’s position on family planning issues is a “matter of doctrine which are internal to the church.” Therefore, she declared, the State may not inquire into the position taken by the church in pursuit of its doctrine.
Referring to the comments of some sectors against the position taken by the Catholic church on matters of birth control and the country’s population problem, Imbong said these articulate what freedom of religion means. She stressed that a believer, no matter of what faith, may not be called to account for what he believes in.
Before the meeting was adjourned, the Subcommittee chair requested Acosta to submit specific data and statistics to aid the Committee in its deliberation.
Rep. Firmalo also announced that the Subcommittee will schedule another meeting to continue its deliberations on HBs 1808 and 3422.
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