Popcom-12 orients SK and village officials on population management program

COTABATO CITY – In observance of the World
Population Day (WPD), the Commission on Population Regional Office XII (POPCOM 12) conducted an Orientation on RA 10354 (also known as the RPRH Law) and
Philippine Population Management Program (PPMP) to newly elected Punong Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) Chairpersons
of Cotabato City on July 11, 2018 at SouthSeas Convention Hall, Cotabato City.

The orientation was attended by Punong Barangays, Barangay Kagawads and SK Chairpersons from 37
barangays of Cotabato City. Maguid G. Dagonaway, DILG Cotabato City
representative, Ibno M. Ibrahim, Cotabato City Population Officer, POPCOM RO
XII and POPCOM ARMM staff are also present during the activity. A total of 102
participants were oriented in this event.

This year’s WPD is celebrated with the theme Family
Planning is a Human Right . This year also coincides with the 50th
anniversary of the Teheran Declarationand Parents have a basic human right to
determine freely and responsibly the number and the spacing of their children.
This was resolved during the United Nations International Conference on Human
Rights on May 13, 1968 where family planning was affirmed for the first time
globally to be a basic human right.

WPD is about countering any notion of population
control , ensuring that future generations would never take a hard-won human
right for granted and also strengthening the global rights and development
frameworks that support it.

During the orientation, POPCOM RO 12 regional
director Edwin Mateo P. Quijano emphasizes the importance of the role of the barangay
officials on strengthening the implementation of the RPRH law as they are the
frontliners on reaching out the community, facing the population in the
barangay level. RD Quijano also stresses out that SK federation also plays an
important role to ensure that future generations will be able to know about the
programs intended for them.

POPCOM RO XII conducts advocacy programs not only
for the population of reproductive age but also to the adolescents, giving more
importance to their health and development. As POPCOM RO XII conducts
Adolescent Health and Development Program (AHDP) activities, most of the
adolescents reached are only those of the in-school-youths. With the help of
the SK federation, it would widen the coverage of the AHD program, reaching out
to out-of-school youths. The support of the Barangay and SK officials will make
more impact on the implementation of the RPRH Law and PPMP.

Barangay Officials headed by Mr. Jose T. Elihay Jr.,
representative of ABC president PB Anthony M. Ross of Rosary Heights 8 and SK
Chairpersons headed by the SK Federation President Talib M. Abo III, SK
Chair of Mother Barangay Bagua pledged their support in conducting population
programs to their barangays.

Concluding the activity, POPCOM RO XII and the City
Population Division under the City Social Welfare and Development Office
(CSWDO) ensures technical assistance to the barangays upon the conduct of
activities in support to the implementation of the RPRH Law and PPMP.