The Commission on Population (PopCom) urged to include family planning in the government’s pandemic and disaster preparedness programs.
PopCom executive director Juan Antonio Perez III pushed for family planning efforts as part of the pandemic and disaster response.
“Practicing family planning and responsible parenthood should be part of medium- to long-term solutions toward building the resiliency of families and communities, as these would enable couples to have greater capacity to ensure their health, financial stability, and other social protections in the future,” Perez said.
He added that family planning would help the community overcome the pandemic and natural calamities.
This week, PopCom will celebrate “Population and Development Week,” highlighting the relationship between population factors and the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our resiliency against the pandemic and other related crisis situations starts from our decision to form a family. We need to consider our preparedness and capabilities to provide each member their physical, social, emotional, and other pertinent needs,” Perez said.
As observed from COVID-19 trends in the country, PopCom said community transmissions are still high in densely populated areas.
“Physical distancing — a critical health and safety protocol being implemented by the government — has proven to be difficult to implement among households of small residential units with an average of less than 20 sq. m., and having more than four members,” PopCom said.
PopCom: Include family planning in pandemic, disaster response
PopCom provides technical assistance to local government units (LGUs) and other institutions in dealing with other population issues like unmanaged internal migration, which causes crowding in megacities such as Metro Manila.
Population factors, PopCom said, would aid local governments plan and implement their programs, with a focus on communities with demographic vulnerabilities.
“The importance of understanding and considering the demographic situation of populations in formulating development initiatives that aim to uplift lives of people and their communities, especially at this time of the pandemic and the series of natural calamities, cannot be underestimated, given the government’s limited resources,” Perez said.
PopCom’s Central Office will have a special episode on POPDEV for its “Usap Tayo sa FP with Doc Jeepy” on November 30, Monday, through its Facebook accounts @OfficialPOPCOM and @UsapTayoSaFP.