by Lovely A. Carillo
The male machismo has often been blamed for the lack of proper family planning among Filipino families. For one, Filipinos still generally live in a patriarchal society where, generally, the father decides for the family. And more often than not, the head of the family refuses to use condoms, and will not even allow his wife to use oral contraceptives.
Danelo Case of Maragusan, Compostela Valley, father of an eleven-month old girl, however, proved the common notion of male pride wrong. Case, a member of the Civilian Armed Force Geographical Unit (Cafgu) and a part time banana plantation laborer, is one of the few macho men around who is not afraid to show his concern for his wife.
“Ay, depende man lang na sa pag control sa lalaki kung gusto niya makighilawas sa iyahang asawa (it depends on the man if he wants to have sex with his wife),” Case said when asked how he practices family planning with his wife.
Case, popular in his hometown as a “macho papa” after winning the aid search, is determined to wait for ten years before having another child. As a certified “macho papa”, Case is redefining the image of manhood, or the typical Filipino machismo.
“Mas gusto gyud namo ang artificial na contraceptive kay naa sya’y kaligtasan (We prefer to use artificial contraceptive because we feel more secure that way),” he said.
Case decided to accompany his wife to their health center some 100 kilometers from home when he first learned that she was pregnant and wanted to make sure she was safe. He accompanied his wife to the clinic for her regular pre-natal checkups in the first six months of her pregnancy.
“Gusto man gud nako makahibalo kung unsa ang gina inject sa iyaha (I wanted to know what they were injecting her with the whole time),” he added
Department of Health Aassistant secretary Nemesio Gako, who was in Davao City for the launching of the “May Plano Ako, Kaya Mo Ring Magplano” family planning campaign at The Marco Polo Davao last August 18, said the Davao region is not doing well in its family planning statistics compared to other regions.
“Based on national figures, the region is still far behind and is urged to continue with family planning efforts,” he said. Gako cited the low rate of health providers–40 percent—available to give family planning advice and counselling to its inhabitants.
However, he said, the task of planning a healthy family should not be left in the hands of health provider alone. A good family plan, he said, is something which will allow couples to have time for each other without having to worry.
Gako said that having too many children can mean less time for the children and more strain on the relationship.
Family planning efforts
Davao City is serious in promoting family planning methods among its population. Up to 3,000 women have been ligated under the city’s tubal ligation program since the 1980s. A total of 500 women underwent ligation under the program in 2009, while 89 men had scalpel vasectomy.
City health officer Dr. Joy Villafuerte dispelled rumors that the city provides incentives to Dabawenyos who opt to avail of ligation and vasectomy programs. “There is no incentive, but since the hospital charges fees, we pay for the ligation, she said.
Villafuerte lamented that, since the Southern Philippines Medical Center (formerly DMC) has many patients, it takes time to have a patient scheduled for ligation or vasectomy. “Most of the time, we refer them to private hospitals,” she added.
“The city government is serious in its goal of providing quality health service to its constituents.” Villafuerte said. Mayor Sara Duterte has directed each health worker to service between 3,000 to 10,000 residents.
The city has allocated P2 million for maternal child care and nutrition rendered by 1,350 barangay health workers and 350 barangay nutrition scholars.
Family planning situationer
Data from the health promotion and communication project (HealthPRO) show that out of ten married Filipino women, only four know when they are fertile, and only seven know about the side effects of a family planning method. And out of ten Filipino couples, seven want to practice family planning.
The same data indicate that 50.7 percent of married women use family planning methods, with 34 percent opting for modern methods and only 17 percent for traditional methods.
HealthPRO research shows that 49 percent of currently married women do not use any family planning method while 53 percent of them are not averse to using any of the methods to plan the family while 42 percent said they will not use any of these methods.
Up to 26.5 percent of the married women who do not use family planning methods cited health reasons, 23.3 percent cited fear of side effects, 18.6 percent said they wanted more children while 7.5 percent said their husbands oppose them.
Challenges in planning the family
HealthPRO discovered that Filipino women, especially the poor, have more children than they want. And while 54 percent of Filipino married women with two or more children no longer want to bear a child, it is ironic that they have low contraceptive use, with one out of two married women into family planning.
Gako said the health department is targeting a modern contraceptive prevalence rate of 80 percent by 2015. And yet, research shows that only 34 percent of currently married women use modern family planning methods, with pills the most widely-used at 16 percent, followed by withdrawal at 10 percent, female sterilization at nine percent and rhythm at six percent.
While family planning advocates claim that limiting the number of family members to a certain number through family planning can make the Filipinos’ quality of life better, Gako said there is as yet no study to prove that the higher the population growth rate the poorer the economy gets.
However, the emergence of China as a powerful world economic force has led to a changing paradigm on the effects of population increase. Some economists now consider a huge population as a blessing for a country, instead of a curse.
Mayor Reynaldo Navarro of Laak, Compostela Valley, disagrees. “The prevailing mindset among farmers that having more children means more hands on the farm is no longer true,” he said.
Navarro said the world itself is not expanding, and if poor families keep increasing without limit, then “just imagine what will happen to the family in terms of providing education and health care for its members.”
With these contrasting views on population increase, the question persists: does an increase in population spell doom or salvation for a country?
