DUMAGUETE CITY, Negros Oriental, Aug. 11 (PIA) -- The Commission on Population and Development (CPD) would like to boost peer-to-peer interventions as well as parent-teen tête-à-tête to help lower the increasing number on teenage pregnancy in Negros Oriental.

This was cited by Population Program Officer III Maria Lourdes Garillos of CPD-7 during the presentation of 2022 National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) provincial data dissemination forum in Dumaguete City.

It was shown that teenage pregnancy rates in Central Visayas as well as in the national had gone down to 5%.

But Negros Oriental has logged an increasing trend of births among adolescent mothers under 15 years old or Grade 9 students.

The Civil Registry and Vital Statistics (CRVS) in 2021 show that at least 2,254 girls aged 15 to 19 gave birth in the province.

Garillos said that CPD has developed an adolescent health and development program and sexuality education simultaneously with family planning program for responsible parenthood for young children and students to prevent teen pregnancies.

The CPD also organized the male group dubbed KATROPA or "Kalalakihang Tapat sa Responsibilidad at Obligasyon sa Pamilya" to involve men to take an active role in family planning.

Garillos noted that the national concern on teenage pregnancy is a national emergency as about 60% are fathered by teenagers with men older than them.

“In fact some men aged over 70 were birth fathers, so this is a factor of VAWC (Violence Against Women and Children). Maybe there’s sexual molestation, pressures, force-driven effect and 30% are of the same of age,” said Garillos.

In the same forum, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) also reported that the fertility rate in Region 7 is at 2.0, slightly surpassing the national average of 1.9.

The trend in the total fertility rate revealed a remarkable decline from 4.4 in 1993 to 2.0 in 2022, which indicates that young women aged 15-19 went from having an average of four to two children during their lifetime. 

PSA data also showed that women aged 25-49 in Central Visayas initiate their first sexual intercourse at a median age of 21 years. 

The median age at first marriage for Filipino women is 23 years; this is two years older than the median age at first sexual intercourse, a trend also observed in the region. 

Childbearing in the Philippines comes within one year of marriage where the median age at first birth is 24 years while in Central Visayas, the median age at first birth is 23 years. (JCT/PIA7 Negros Oriental with reports from Antoine Duquenne, SU Intern)