Home study for Baguio’s pregnant teeners

Below is an article about curative measures undertaken in Baguio re: concerns on teenage pregnancies. This is truly commendable. However, I must stress that advocacy for preventive measures such as Adolescent Reproductive Health Education should be strengthened so that it will be included in every High School Curricula, just like in Quezon City, thus avoiding unwanted pregnancies among teenagers.

Home study for Baguio’s pregnant teeners

Desiree Caluza
Northern Luzon Bureau
First Posted 06:08:00 03/11/2008

BAGUIO CITY—Pregnant teenagers can still finish high school under a home study program offered by a public school here.

The Baguio City National High School (BCNHS), one of the best performing public high schools in the Cordillera Administrative Region, has been conducting the program since 2003 when it was chosen by the Department of Education as pilot school, said its medical officer, Dr. Jocelyn de Jesus.

De Jesus, however, clarified that the school did not condone teenage pregnancy through the program. “What we are concerned about is the health and welfare of the pregnant student. It should not even be an issue of morality. We do not care anymore what others say.”

The official spoke in a press forum on the celebration of Women’s Month on Wednesday.

Students who get pregnant at an early age should not be condemned but should be educated on the risks of early pregnancy, De Jesus said. She said the BCNHS had intensified the education on reproductive health and sex as part of the school curriculum.

“Sometimes, we ask ourselves if we are at fault. After some serious evaluation, we think that we do not fall short of educating our children,” she said.

Last year, the BCNHS reported nine cases of teenage pregnancy. The youngest mother, who was 13, was a product of arranged marriage, De Jesus said. “This was a case of culture, so all we could do was support her.”

She said pregnant students should be prevented from dropping out of school by providing the home study program. Sometimes, they get discriminated against but have the moral support of peers and teachers, she said.

Under the program, a student could file for maternity leave for a week to one month to rest before or after her delivery. She still gets to study at home when a teacher sends her the module to cope with the lessons taken up in class.

The school also provides counseling to the students.

Compared to private schools, public high schools have been more accommodating to teenage pregnant students, according to De Jesus.

Councilor Betty Lourdes Tabanda, chair of the city council’s committee on women and children, said some private schools would expel pregnant high school students because of issues on morality. “Some private Catholic schools expel pregnant students for violating school regulations. But these schools now are re-examining this policy because views on pregnant women are changing already,” she said.

QC ordinance promotes Adolescent Health Education

Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:27:00 03/11/2008


I AM writing to clarify some matters regarding the approved ordinance in Quezon City promoting a comprehensive population policy and reproductive health management. ("Reproductive health policy for QC not pro-abortion," Inquirer, 2/19/08)

The ordinance has amended the provision on the teaching of sex education. Its Sec. 7 takes into consideration the formation of the youth's positive moral and spiritual attitudes and beliefs with respect to sex, sexual identity, interpersonal relationships, affection, intimacy and gender roles.

This holistic approach has resulted in what is now called Adolescent Health Education which will be included in the public school curriculum. Adolescent Health Education will be taught in age-appropriate manner by adequately trained teachers, from first-year to fourth-year high school, under the competent supervision of the Division of City Schools. Private educational institutions, on their own initiative, may also include Adolescent Health Education in their respective curricula.

Adolescent Health Education covers topics such as reproductive health care and services; responsible parenthood; the attitudes, beliefs and values on sexual development, sexual behavior and sexual health in the context of positive and holistic moral and spiritual development; and the prevention, treatment and management of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.--JOSEPH "SEP" JUICO, city councilor, District 1, Quezon City

Speedy approval of IRRs for gender code pushed

By Jeannette Andrade
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 05:58:00 03/10/2008


MANILA, Philippines--Following Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte’s statement that every day was Women’s Day in the locality, a councilor has pushed for the approval of the proposed implementing rules and regulations of the Gender and Development (GAD) Code which was signed into law almost four years ago.

Councilor Bernadette Herrera-Dy of the first district reminded the city government that the approval of the IRRs is long overdue.

The GAD Code was the first to be passed by a local government unit in Metro Manila. It was passed on Feb. 17, 2004, and signed into law by Belmonte on April 1, 2004. It basically tasks city officials with enforcing the laws on the protection of women and children.

The mayor, meanwhile, assured residents that the city government would always strive to keep Quezon City the center of gender equality and women empowerment in the country.

“Here in Quezon City, we already have more women than men as middle managers at Quezon City Hall,” he said.

“Here, we are very conscious of the need to uplift the status of women,” Belmonte added.

He cited the recent enactment of the ordinance on population and reproductive health management as among the measures passed by the city government to ensure the empowerment of women residents.

The ordinance gives women the freedom of choice in nurturing their health and fertility to help uplift their quality of living.

Belmonte expressed hope that the ordinance would contribute to poverty reduction by helping parents provide a better future for their children by way of family planning.

Int'l Women's Day protests highlight violence, inequality

Agence France-Presse
First Posted 09:44:00 03/09/2008


PARIS--Calls to end forced marriage, domestic abuse and job discrimination marked International Women's Day on Saturday as demonstrators took to the streets worldwide.

The issues highlighted crossed a wide spectrum, including abortion rights in Italy, violence against women in Iraq and women hostages in Colombia.

Nearly 100 years old, the day marks the worldwide struggle for equal rights for half the globe's population.

Scores of women rallied outside a Baghdad hotel demanding an end to violence and equal social status with men.

"Stop neglecting women. Stop killing women. Stop creating widows," read a large banner that the women, from various ethnic and religious backgrounds, held at the Babylon Hotel in Baghdad's central Karrada neighborhood.

In Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai spoke out against forced marriages and said threats from a Taliban-led insurgency were keeping girls out of school.

"I call on religious leaders, tribal elders and particularly men: stop forcing your under-aged girls to marry, stop marrying them to old men," Karzai said.

Up to 80 percent of Afghan women face forced marriage, and nearly two-thirds are married before the legal age of 16, according to the United Nations.

Events were also planned in neighboring Pakistan, where "honor killings" of women and punishment gang-rapes have been widely reported.

Gatherings took place in India, Indonesia and China as activists pressed for an end to discrimination ranging from abortion of female foetuses to workplace bias.

Australian women's minister Tanya Plibersek said the occasion was a chance to acknowledge issues such as women's lack of financial independence.

"From the moment a woman enters the workforce she is likely to earn less than her male colleagues, regardless of her career, industry or level," she said.

Communist North Korea marked the day in its own way by urging its women to reject Western fashions and to "set good examples" in their clothes and hairstyles.

In Europe, job inequality, domestic abuse and abortion rights were highlighted.

Tens of thousands demonstrated in several Italian cities in favor of the right to abortion -- legalized in that country 30 years ago, but unexpectedly a hot topic ahead of April elections.

Nearly 2,000 people gathered in Warsaw over abortion rights. Poland, like Italy a heavily Roman Catholic nation, has one of Europe's most restrictive abortion laws.

A demonstration in France drew attention to French-Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt, seized by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in February 2002 as she campaigned for the Colombian presidency.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy called for an end to pay inequality between men and women, and pledged to institute financial sanctions to address the problem.

Turkmenistan officially marked the day with a cash gift from President Gourbangouly Berdymoukhamedov worth nearly $10 to every Turkmen woman. It was the first commemoration of the day there since 2003, when then-president Saparmourat Niazov banned the festivities.

In Ukraine, Itar-Tass news agency reported, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko offered best wishes to her compatriots, saying: "It's the day when men recognize that they can not live without us!"

There were also reminders of persistent difficulties facing women on Saturday.

Two women were attacked in the northern South African province of Limpopo because they were wearing mini-skirts, public radio reported. A group of people surrounded them, pushed them and yelled for them to undress before the women took refuge in a nearby hair salon.

In eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, thousands of women protested to demand punishment for those who commit sexual violence, including rape.

"The law on sexual violence is not applied," said Esperance Katungu. "Women are often not informed of their rights."

More than 7,000 cases of sexual violence were reported in 2007 in the eastern Nord-Kivu province of the DR Congo, which was also hit by heavy clashes between the army and militias last year.

United Nations officials in Port-au-Prince took the opportunity to highlight the role of some 226 women in military and police roles in the 9,200-strong UN mission in Haiti who are charged with helping reduce violence against women.

In Latin America, the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez saw several husbands of the more than 400 women murdered in the city since 1993 march to demand justice.

And hundreds of women in Brazil calling themselves "anti-capitalist feminists" took to the streets in downtown Sao Paulo.

A lot to learn from the poor and the lowly

Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:45:00 03/01/2008

Months ago, there was a report about fishermen who, at great risk to their lives, scour the depths to gather sea cucumber for livelihood. On a daily average, a diver produces one to two kilos of the exotic seafood and earns P150 for the effort. However, without any value added, the same item commands a price averaging P1,400 per kilogram in Metro Manila.

The inequity of an economic order where labor is not fairly rewarded is manifest almost everywhere. In Eastern Samar province, where I come from and where I worked for a World Bank-funded anti-poverty project, a great number of upland farmers toil all their lives but still end up without adequate means to meet their basic needs. A farmer sells a 50-kilogram sack of bananas in the “poblacion” [town proper] at P150 but loses P120 of that amount to transport cost. It is even tougher for farmers in western and northern Samar, whose farms have been rendered largely unproductive due to soil erosion brought about initially by massive commercial logging and, in later years, by “kaingin” [slash-and-burn farming].

And yet the poor have been a profile of resilience and hope, whether they are in Samar or elsewhere. In ways that sometimes enlighten the rich, they have shown a capacity to win their daily battles through hard work, integrity and genuine concern for others. They are willing to sacrifice everything they have to earn an honest living, as the Sumilao farmers have shown. The World Bank-funded project I mentioned has helped the poor communities gain not only skills and experience in planning and managing projects that address their socioeconomic needs, but also the discipline to conduct procurement processes in a transparent manner, free of graft and corruption.

Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr., in his Senate testimony, recounted an encounter he had with a poor farmer gathering guava fruits to sell in the market. When Lozada saw that the farmer was not picking all the fruits, he asked why. The farmer replied that he had to leave some fruits for the birds to eat.

Lozada said the farmer’s concern for the birds touched him. More so because the farmer himself looked like in need of help.

By his courage, Lozada has shown that there is in every person a capacity to respond positively to an inner calling, like serving the ends of truth at the expense of personal comfort, liberty, and even physical existence.

It seems that, despite the demoralizing morass we’re in, there is nothing which is really beyond redemption. A “probinsyanong Intsik” [provincial Chinese], named Lozada, can teach the government how procurement involving public funds should be conducted. The farmer can teach us how to put in practice our concern for others, for nature and for the environment.

Who knows, maybe next time we have elections (don’t laugh), the poor might just show to everyone that money could no longer win votes. When that happens, officials of the Commission on Elections will lose their part-time jobs as sales agents, and they can therefore focus on counting the votes right.

HERMILANDO DUQUE ABERIA (via email)

'Puro-poor' growth

By Cielito Habito
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 17:59:00 03/09/2008


A FORMER government statistician wrote me a note describing our economy's recent growth in the above terms (rather than minus the "u"), in light of the recently released report that poverty had worsened between 2003 and 2006.

The latest official poverty statistics, based on the Family Income and Expenditures Survey (FIES) of the National Statistics Office (NSO), affirms what many observers had been lamenting for some time.

Not only has the supposed brisk growth of our economy in recent years not been felt by the majority of our people; worse, it had actually pushed an additional 700,000 families, or almost four million Filipinos, into poverty!

Ruthless growth

This outcome where poverty actually worsens with economic growth is the worst form of what has come to be labeled in the development literature as "ruthless growth."

Closely related to this is the phenomenon of jobless growth, where GDP growth is not accompanied by commensurate growth in employment.

The data speak for themselves: Jobs grew by only 11.9 percent within the six year period 2001-2007, when real GDP grew more than three times faster by 38.4 percent.

Note that in the same period, the number of working-age Filipinos grew much faster, too (15 percent), not counting those who had already gone overseas.

It should be no surprise, then, how poverty can rise in the face of the economy's recent growth.

These dismal poverty numbers give rise to two types of questions. The first type has to do with the veracity of the statistics, particularly those on economic growth. The second type concerns the reasons for the worsening poverty situation.

Inconsistencies

In his latest analyses on our economic data, former Neda Chief Philip Medalla points to stark inconsistencies in the official statistics.

He notes in particular that GNP/GDP statistics say our economy has attained the "highest economic growth rates ever," achieving "higher average economic growth rates under the Arroyo administration than those attained under Presidents Aquino, Ramos and Estrada."

On the other hand, data from the FIES, a survey taken every three years across more than 41,000 households, paint exactly the opposite picture: Family income and expenditures grew the slowest in the Arroyo years, i.e., in 2000-2003 and 2003-2006.

Administration apologists insist that the GNP/GDP accounts and the FIES do not measure exactly the same things. Still, Medalla points out that from 1988 to 2000, GDP growth and FIES statistics painted the same economic picture; now they actually contradict each other.

And this is just one among several contradictions in the statistics he notes to have emerged only in the Arroyo years. "Given all the guesstimates that enter the GDP statistics, I'm inclined to believe the FIES," he notes. "In other words, the economy is not doing as well as government propagandists would like us to believe." And the worsening poverty picture in 2003-2006 seems to lend credence to his suspicion.

Real income losses

Why has poverty worsened? What has pushed close to four million additional Filipinos into poverty?

The reason, clearly, was that personal/family incomes failed to catch up with the rising cost of living. The FIES data show average family income rising by 16.3 percent in 2003-2006, but cost of living had far outstripped this, with a growth of 22.3 percent in the same period.

Albay Gov. Joey Salceda, in his presentations to explain his proposed economic stimulus cum social rebalancing program, itemizes the sources of the real income loss suffered especially by middle and lower income groups.

These are: Higher petroleum prices, which took P118 billion away from family incomes; the E-VAT, which took away another P76 billion; the increase in power tariffs charged by National Power Corp., which took P56 billion; the peso appreciation, which took away P39 billion, and removal of the cross-subsidy on residential power by commercial/industrial establishments, which took away P34 billion from household incomes.

All told, these account for the bulk of the estimated P461 billion drop in household incomes tracked by the FIES between 2003 and 2006.

Not just from OFWs

Even the much-touted remittances do not really go to the poor, according to emerging results of a study by the Asian Development Bank shared in a public briefing last week.

This affirms the clarification that former Commission on Filipinos Overseas Executive Director Joe Molano has repeatedly been making, i.e., that the billions of dollars in remittances coming in from abroad are not just coming from contract workers, but also from long-term Filipino migrants abroad who are likely to be more affluent.

That a substantial part is evidently coming from this group is supported by the data showing that half of all remittances come from the United States.

These are the remittances propelling brisk sales of condominiums, rather than stimulating the rural economy where most of the poor are.

It seems the government has attained yet another first, this time an unflattering one: For the first time, we see poverty rise even as the economy grows.

We badly need to turn this "puro-poor" growth into a truly pro-poor one.

UN calls on member states to 'invest in women and girls'

Agence France-Presse
First Posted 10:28pm (Mla time) 03/06/2008


UNITED NATIONS -- Noting that "progress for women is progress for all," the United Nations is urging the world to invest in its women and girls.

In a statement released ahead of International Women's Day, celebrated Saturday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon lamented the gap too often seen between policy and practice regarding women's empowerment and gender equality.

"A lack of political will is reflected in the most telling way of all: lack of resources and insufficient budgetary allocations," Ban's statement said.

"That is why the theme of this International Women's Day is 'Investing in Women and Girls'," he said.

"This failure of funding undermines not only our endeavors for gender equality and women's empowerment as such; it also holds back our efforts to reach all the Millennium Development Goals," he said.

These eight objectives, approved by world leaders in 2000 to halve poverty by 2015, include combating HIV/AIDS and malaria, improving maternal health, reducing child mortality, eradicating extreme poverty and hunger and promoting gender equality.

"As we know from long and indisputable experience, investing in women and girls has a multiplier effect on productivity and sustained economic growth," Ban wrote.

"No measure is more important in advancing education and health, including the prevention of HIV/AIDS. No other policy is as likely to improve nutrition, or reduce infant and maternal mortality," he said.

But he took note of some progress, including allocation of financial resources to increase women's employment, enhance use of microfinancing, and extend credit for women's businesses.

"More than 50 countries have launched gender-responsive budgeting initiatives. The private sector is scaling up efforts to finance women's economic empowerment, and women's funds and foundations are emerging as innovative sources of financing," he said.

"But we must do more," he added.

"All of us in the international community -- Governments, multilateral organizations, bilateral institutions and the private sector -- need to calculate the economic costs of persistent gender inequality, and the resources required to remedy it," he said.

2008 marks the mid-point in the effort to accomplish the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, Ban noted. That can only be done by investing in women and girls, he said.

"On this International Women's Day, let us resolve to unite in this mission."

ADB cites key action points to lift Philippine growth

Thomson Financial
First Posted 14:15:00 03/06/2008


MUMBAI -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said the Philippines must raise revenues, improve infrastructure, strengthen governance to build investor confidence, expand its industrial base, and improve access to employment and development opportunities to increase growth and reduce poverty.

An ADB report identified several critical constraints to economic growth and the fight against poverty in the next 5-8 years for the Philippines. Targeting and removal of the most critical constraints will lead to the highest returns and will spur investment, which will lead to sustained and high growth and create more productive employment opportunities, the ADB said.

Firstly, the fiscal situation remains tight despite the government making good progress to reduce deficits and aims to balance its budget in 2008.

Secondly, declining public and private sector investments in infrastructure have led to inadequate and poor infrastructure and bottlenecks, which have raised the cost of doing business and eroded the country's competitiveness and attractiveness to foreign and local investors, ADB said.

Thirdly, poor performance on key governance aspects, in particular, control of corruption and political stability, has eroded investor confidence.

Poor infrastructure and weak investor confidence have led to weak flows of foreign direct investment (FDI), ADB said.

The report said the government's inability to address effectively market failures of various kinds may have also hampered expansion and diversification of its industrial base and noted the need for the government to play a more proactive role in overcoming coordination and information failures.

The report said the government can support its development agenda through broadening access to education, training and health services, instituting more effective and better funded development programs at local levels, and improving targeted social protection and disaster relief.

Belmonte OKs new QC population policy

Tuesday, March 4, 2008 / Philippine Star




Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr. announced yesterday that he has approved a controversial ordinance that sets the city’s population and reproductive health policy.

“The final choice on (the size of) their family is for couples. The government just provides guides and the necessary support,” Belmonte told city hall employees during yesterday’s flag-raising ceremony.

Council Majority Leader Ariel Inton said the proposed ordinance was approved by the city council after a series of consultations, including meetings with church officials, who initially opposed the measure.

He said the ordinance “provides no penal provision but will guarantee access to safe, affordable and quality reproductive health care” and relevant information.

Under the new ordinance, the city government shall promote natural and artificial methods of family planning and provide couples and individuals access to relevant information and resources to enable them to make sound and responsible family planning decisions.

The new measure also provides mandatory training of city health workers and barangay officials on delivering the family planning services. – Perseus Echeminada

'Filipinos could number 150M if you don't act now'

By Jeannette Andrade
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 06:14:00 03/04/2008


MANILA, Philippines -- Even if a two-child policy is enforced by 2010, the Philippine population is expected to reach 150 million because the poor lack information and access to family planning services, according to a nonprofit organization based in Berkeley, California.

"Even if the country reached replacement level fertility (prescribed number of children per family) by 2010, the ultimate population of the Philippines would be 150 million people," said Martha Madison Campbell, founder president of Venture Strategies for Health Development.

According to its website, Venture Strategies is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the health of low-income people in developing countries by using business mechanisms and building on the power of local market forces.

"There is no time to waste to ensure that the country has enough land for growing food for today's families and also to have remaining forests for tomorrow's children," Campbell said Monday at a press conference at Sulo Hotel to announce the Third National Conference on Population, Health and the Environment to be held in Tagaytay City on March 5-7.

She warned that unless the country gave greater emphasis to family planning, there was a danger of increasing poverty. "Poor people have big families [not] because they want to but because the poor have no access to contraceptives and health education."

She said United Nations demographers in 2002 projected that the Philippine population would reach between 75 and 85 million. But the population overshot the high projection and now stands at 89 million.

Faster than expected

What the figures show, Campbell stressed, "is population growth is faster that anyone expected."

"If there is another delay... if the Philippines waits another 40 years before reaching an average of two children per family, that will mean 100 million more people living in these beautiful islands [compared to] if every family [would] have only two children two years from now," said the political scientist and health specialist from the University of California.

She said that in the 1960s, Thailand and the Philippines each had a population of some 20 million people. Today Thailand has 66 million people compared to the Philippines' 89 million.

"In Thailand, where there is access to contraception, uneducated women use family planning methods just like women with a college education. In the Philippines, where there is no clear national government support for a family planning program, contraceptive use is less -- especially among poor and uneducated women, leading to more unintended pregnancies and larger families," Campbell said.

Risks

International Programs Director Richard Skolnik of the Washington-based Population Reference Bureau said there were many environmental risks to health due to increasing pressure that population growth and migration to cities put on the environment.

"These problems are best seen in the large number of Filipinos who still lack access to safe water and sanitation and who are subjected to indoor and outdoor air pollution," Skolnik said, adding that diarrhea and respiratory infections, especially among poor children, made up 20 percent of the causes of death in the country.

Philippine Legislators Committee on Population and Development (PLCPD) executive director Ramon San Pascual said the impact of population growth on the environment cannot be ignored. "A law on population management and reproductive health is urgently needed."

For his part, Conservation International-Philippines country executive director Romeo Trono said: "The question is not what needs to be done, but whether or not government units and agencies, the business sector, support agencies and communities will actually do it with a serious sense of urgency as high priority is required."