Government intensifies Family Planning

BUTUAN CITY, Aug. 14 -- The government’s goal to achieve a better quality of life for every Filipino family may reach another height as the country celebrates this August the Family Planning Month. 

This year’s theme “Planuhin ang Pamilya Para sa Magandang Kinabukasan” is the focus of the campaign done through the Responsible Parenting - Family Planning (RP-FP) classes at the grassroots. 

As reported by the Provincial/City Population Officers in the region, there are already 164,031 couples who attended the RP-FP classes since its inception in 2007. 

“RP - FP is now integrated in the Family Development Session of the Pantawid Pamilya of Department of Social Welfare & Development (DSWD)”, said Mr. Alexander A. Makinano, Officer-In-Charge of POPCOM-Caraga. 

Mr. Makinano further mentioned that planning the size and number of children in the family is a shared responsibility between husband and wife. 

In another development, the Commission on Population together with the Department of Health and the Local Government Units unified their efforts to provide couples with the comprehensive family planning information and services particularly to women with unmet need for family planning – or those currently married women 15 – 49 years old who do not want any more children or want to space births but are not using any family planning method. 

In Caraga, 20 in every 100 married women of reproductive age or 20.4% have unmet need for family planning as revealed in the 2011 Family Health Survey. 

This group of women is the priority target of the government’s Family Planning Program to help them achieve their desired number of children. (Angie Balen-Antonio, POPCOM-13/PIA-Caraga)