More people see population mgt correlate with good life

LOSING OR GAINING. With the real threat of population explosion, population advocates here report that more people have seen the important co-relation between population management and sustainable resource use. Still the top question is, are we winning the battle but losing the war? Here, women and children advocate Godofreda Tirol share the panel with Provincial Population Coordinator Joy Pepito and City Pop Coordinator Leonita Relamida at a press conference at Jjs Dimsum. (PIA)

“IF by ensuring children a healthy chance in the future is an immoral, then let God be the judge.” The statement again pops up as another irritant for widely conservative Bohol . Here, where the church and the government rate high on matters of population management, recent figures reveal a telling truth: there is a significant number of Boholanos seeing the correlation between population management and assuring a healthy family and environment for sustainable development.

A survey on the recent local adaptation for population management methods have shown that more than 62,000 couples are into planning to shape up their families by using a cafeteria of family planning methods. This, most believe, would give their children a better chance of survival.

Here too, where the church has remained reserved on its support for population management while only opting for the rhythm or calendar method, the year has revealed some 18 thousand new users of population management methods. This while some 43 thousand couples are continuing their opted methods, says Provincial Family Planning Coordinator Joy Pepito in a press conference recently.

With Family Planning Month celebrated in August, population management advocates here said there is no point in daring the conservative church to openly support for family planning, in fact the point is in giving the people the chance to exercise the highest human faculty of responsible choice.

In Bohol , the battle cry has always been in line with the national agenda of trimming the population growth rate to 1.9% by 2010. With Bohol 's annual population growth pegged at 2.9%, the task indeed becomes a tall order for population management advocates. Like Central Visayas, which still rates high with about 17% of family planning and management needs unmet, a spreadsheet data distributed by Washington DC based Population Reference Bureau said it contributes to the staggering 2.4% growth rate nationwide. If unchecked, the country's population would zoom faster than most Southeast Asian countries with 141 million Filipinos by 2040.

The unchecked population growth would necessarily impact on the environment, which ultimately shrinks one's chances of getting the right share to live perfectly, population managers share. Up for the job shaving the population growth is United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) and collaborative efforts of local governments improving understanding on the utilization of integrated reproductive health information and services. The local implementation has always been in support of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's (PGMA) International Conference on Population and Development statement, Pepito said. So far, local population coordinators have asked barangay health workers to cascade four pillars of population management for the people to get informed decisions.

PGMA has pressed the state directions towards responsible parenthood, respect for life, birth spacing and informed choice. This is set in a complicated environment where national and international support has been cut off, allowing local government units to deal with population management on their own. But the core job is to provide information and services that enable communities to exercise responsible parenthood in support for sustainable population, health and environment, UNFPA Roxanna Epe hinted.

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