TO make sure the Reproductive Health Law is fully implemented, President Rodrigo Duterte may issue an executive order requiring local government units to comply, Economic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said Friday.
“We will ask the President to issue an EO to local government executives, to the municipality level, not just big cities and provinces, that the RPRH law is a law and that should be implemented fully,” Pernia said.
He added, however, that there will be no additional incentives for couples that choose to use a particular family planning method, as Davao City did when Duterte was mayor.
At the time, contraceptives were given freely to couples in health centers, and those who underwent a vasectomy or ligation received cash incentives.
“With the women employed… the number of children desired will go down. That is a built-in incentive,” Pernia said. “They do not need an extra incentive.”
Pernia said sex education in schools would also be pursued more aggressively this year.
“We can do that right away. The materials are already there… the manuals are ready to go. The new Education secretary is in the same page as far as implementing the provision,” Pernia said.
He said students must be fully informed about the hazards of unwanted pregnancy.
A study commissioned by the UN Population Fund shows that the fertility rate of the country stood at three percent in 2013, the highest across Southeast Asia.
“It would be disheartening to see that years down the road, Lao PDR and Cambodia will enjoy the dividends associated with the demographic transition and transform their economies to the level that will improve the lives of millions of their citizens while the Philippines continues to languish in the high population growth-high poverty incidence trap,” the UN study said.
Economic managers of the Duterte administration earlier said that they aim to reduce poverty incidence in the country by 1.25 to 1.5 percentage points every year. This will result in a reduction in poverty incidence from the current 26 percent to about 20 percent at the end of Duterte’s term.
Pernia said this would be feasible if rapid economic growth was accompanied by an increase in jobs for the poorer sectors of the population.
