The Commission on Population and Development (CPD) hopes the recent passage of House Bill 8910 will enable the agency to address the issue of teenage pregnancies in the Philippines.
HB 8910 aims to establish an Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Inter-Agency Council (APPIAC), which will act as the national government’s coordinating body tasked to address the “common and persistent population challenge” of teenage pregnancies.
Undersecretary for Population and Development Lisa Grace Bersales, Ph.D., who is CPD’s executive director, will serve as the council’s chair; while Undersecretary Angelo M. Tapales — the Council for the Welfare of Children’s executive director — will act as co-chair.
Multi-Agency Approach
Under the bill, CPD will collaborate closely with the Department of Health (DOH) for the young parents’ overall wellbeing, the Department of Social Welfare and Development for their social protection, the Department of Education for the Comprehensive Sexual Education’s nationwide implementation as part of their academic curriculum, plus the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to ensure local government units’ involvement in the strategic programs, among others.
Aside from the DOH, DILG and CPD, the council will also comprise of officials of the Philippine Commission on Women, National Youth Commission, Commission on Higher Education, and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority; two members from civil society organizations or women’s rights groups; an adolescent and a youth representative from nationally represented organizations, plus chairpersons of the leagues of provinces, cities, and municipalities.
In a recent radio interview, CPD Deputy Executive Director Lolito Tacardon explained that the multi-agency approach is warranted in solving the dilemma of the country’s young women conceiving very early in life.
“The implication of adolescent pregnancies does not only cover the health of young Filipino girls; it also compromises young parents’ capacity to complete their education and achieve their aspirations, thereby diminishing their chances of being a productive member of their family or household, and the larger society as well. This is especially pronounced and more evident among the poor,” he said.
One Teen Pregnancy Too Many
The CPD official also expressed the need to focus on increasing pregnancies among 10- to 14-year-old girls based on the Civil Registry and Vital Statistics (CRVS) data from the Philippine Statistics Authority.
Tacardon mentioned that hospital births among their peers increased in 2021 to about 2,300, from a little over 2,000 at the onset of the pandemic.
Despite the seemingly low numbers compared to the country’s overall teen population, Tacardon insisted that “one teenage pregnancy is one too many” in view of its life-long and irreversible consequences.
CPD’s deputy head largely hinted at misinformation from the Internet and social media that tend to lead vulnerable teens into risky behaviors.
“Another is the possibility of sexual abuse by older men, as revealed in the CRVS, which indicated that the livebirths among 10- to 14-year old mothers were sired by partners who are older than them” Tacardon pointed out.
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