CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga (PIA) -- Commission on Population and Development (CPD) urged local government units (LGUs) in Central Luzon to reach out to the marginalized population in their localities to advocate for family planning.

Demand generation activities for family planning must target couples living in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas, and coastal and mountainous areas.

CPD Regional Director Lourdes Nacionales stressed that there is a need to reach out to these people as they are the ones who do not have access to information and services.

“If we won’t bring government services to them, we won’t be able to help them. We have to reach out to the marginalized population to push for family planning so that we could reach development,” she said.

She pressed that LGUs should ensure that they offer family planning information and services especially that the family planning program is being devolved to them as part of the full devolution brought by the implementation of the Supreme Court ruling on the Mandanas-Garcia petition.

In addition, Nacionales highlighted that the national government will continue to work together with LGUs to gradually devolve the services to the local level. 

“It's been our long and cherished dream to have a community without unmet needs for family planning, and this can be achieved with the help of our local counterparts,” she added.

It is also working with civil society organizations and the private sector to help in pushing for the provision of family planning information and services to the communities in the region.

Nacionales emphasized that the goal of the family planning program is that all families are planned, and couples are responsible to talk about the number of children that they want based on their capacities as parents.

“What is happening right now is that we still have parents who are not very responsible for their children. Remember that if we know that we won’t be able to provide a good future for our children, we have to rely on family planning methods,” she stated.

Nacionales added that an increasing population is a major cause of poverty as it means that there will be more people depending on the government which leads to the exhaustion of the resources of local communities.

With this, she encouraged couples to choose the family planning method suitable to them. 

“To our couples, remember that family planning is not a job of the woman alone. Both parents should be responsible parents. For us to reach development, we must start inside our homes and our families. If families will be planned responsibly, we will have better communities and a better nation,” the official stressed.

CPD is campaigning for the use of artificial methods, as traditional ones are proven ineffective and inaccurate.

The most popular artificial methods are oral contraceptives or pills for women, and condoms for men. Long-active methods for women are also available such as injectables, implants, and intrauterine devices.

There are also permanent methods for family planning namely bilateral tubal ligation for women, and vasectomy for men. These methods are provided for free in rural health units. (CLJD/JLDC-PIA 3)