An open forum on the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Act of 2012 titled AwaRHeness was conducted last March 25 at room A1103 of the Br. Andrew Gonzalez Hall. The event featured panelists Marilen Dañguilan, author of The RH Bill Story: Contentions and Compromises; DLSU student Margarita Dela Cruz (III, MKT); and Lydio Español Jr., Gender, Culture, and IPs’ Officer at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
Maxine Ferrer (III, AB-OCM), one of the facilitators of the event, wanted to ensure AwaRHeness created “a space for informed dialogue,” discussing topics such as the dominant role of the church as an opposition to the aforementioned Republic Health (RH) Act’s passing.
“[The church’s action’s] really impeded some key provisions, and implementation is still a struggle,” Ferrer stated in an online interview with The LaSallian.
Stigma and misconceptions
Given the Philippines being a religious country, Español affirmed, “There is a stigma associated [with] early sexual activities like premarital sex.” He reasoned that this may also be due to the culture inherited by the Filipino people from colonial rule, where one’s religion greatly affected their view of their own morality.
Sharing similar sentiments, Dela Cruz added that talking about issues such as premarital sex can be difficult due to Philippine society being “very religious and very close-minded to sex.”
Another factor she noted in contributing to misconceptions on said acts is the failure to teach students like her the “detailed context” of the topic, or how to perform the actual intercourse. “We learn from our peers; we learn from social media those kinds of things. It’s not really a reliable source,” she expressed.
On the topic of offering certain contraception methods such as vasectomy, Dañguilan stated that the process is more complex than simply giving pills. She clarified, “We do a lot of talking [and] counseling, [and] asking our clients or patients what they feel (on undergoing such processes).”
Government initiatives
Español also briefed the audience on the strategies the Commission on Population (POPCOM) had for its national family planning program starting this year until the year 2022, which was approved by President Rodrigo Duterte last March 5.
“The national family planning program is classified as a health intervention, and at the same time, poverty alleviation intervention. In that case, the strategy now is to intensify the campaign for family planning,” Español stated.
Among the strategies Español shared was going house to house to look for women with unmet needs for family planning, which he revealed was 35 percent of all women around the country.
“If we could zero that, as the president signed Executive Order No. 12 [or Zero Unmet Need for Modern Family Planning], it means that all of our women who [want] to use family planning are able to achieve the desired number of children,” he added.
Another aspect of their initiatives is to help adolescents with their reproductive health needs. Español expounded that individuals could obtain more information about adolescent-friendly health services through government health facilities.
“The facilitators there are also adolescent and they can help [with] whatever [you] need. For information purposes, there is a standby counselor giving accurate information para yung adolescent di pupunta sa Internet na mali mali yung information. And after that, there is a referral to the [reproductive health] services [they can] avail,” Español explained.
(For information purposes, there is a standby counselor giving accurate information so that the adolescents will not refer to the Internet which may contain incorrect information.)
Heavy reliance
“[The use of contraceptives] are relied on [by] women,” Español declared. He argued that this should not be the case, and stressed the importance of both the male and the female’s role in contributing to natural family planning.
He added that discussing the different methods of family planning is also a key factor in ensuring the capability of the partners to execute natural family planning.
Dela Cruz also emphasized, “It’s important for when you have a partner that you should both take the responsibility of being responsible in participating in sexual activity.”
“Especially with people our age, we often know that a lot of people are now having sex,” the marketing student confessed, adding that a lot of the youth are unaware of the options to perform safe intercourse and the consequences that come along with it. “At the end of the day, if they do have a child, it will be their child,” she concluded.
