POPCOM-7: LGUs in Rural Areas Conduct Vasectomy Ops

Majority of the local government officials in the two municipalities of northern Cebu have undergone vasectomy, a male sterilization and the most effective method of birth control.

This was emphasized this morning by Commission on Population (POPCOM) information officer I Leo Fernandez during the Government on Line program over DYMR, a government radio station in Cebu City.

Fernandez said these two municipalities are Tabogon and Tuburan where series of seminars were conducted regarding the adoption of family planning.

According to Fernandez that vasectomy operations which will last in about 15-20 minutes for each patient, was basically headed by their barangay chief executives.

“Then pagtan-aw sa mga konsehal nga dali ra kaayo nahuman ang operasyon, they also followed and even the barangay tanods also shared the experiences of the barangay officials”, Fernandez added.

Fernandez explained that vasectomy for men and ligation for women are the two most effective ways of birth control.

But the Reproductive Health (RH) law is not only limited to help people who wanted to adopt birth control but at the same time to guide every couple on the right way of observing family planning methods, Fernandez claimed.

He said that after the approval of RH law, the government immediately released budgets to each province, city, municipality down to the barangay level to make every contraceptive material which are needed by the people are anytime available and free of charge.

But before a couple received any materials for permanent, natural and artificial family planning methods, they must have to undergo first physical examination on what is applicable to them, according to Fernandez.

He added, “The in-charge physician is the one who will advise what is applicable for the couple. If they want to adopt permanent birth control then they would have to choose whether a mother to undergo ligation or the husband for vasectomy”.

“For natural methods of family planning they would be trained how and when to apply this system, and for artificial family planning methods the doctor will also provide them guides whether they want condoms or pills”, add Fernandez.

Every barangay health center is already provided with stocks of medicines for pregnant and lactating mothers and even to those small children.

This is just to show that the government is taking care of everybody’s future.

To the female youths, there are various learning institutions where they should learn how to protect themselves from early pregnancies such as schools , church, non government organizations handling this kind of society problem and others.

Fernandez said that the female youths are basically the main problem now of the government because based on surveys, more than 50 percent of youths ages 10-18 years are already experiencing early pregnancy.

However Fernandez said that if the trend continous for LGUs to become the good pattern for RH law compliance, there is a possibility the 8 percent reproduction of the Philippine population from 2010-2014 surveys will be reduced dramatically if not abruptly.

Based on the recent statistics released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the total Filipino population now is reaching to 100 million from 92 million based on the 2010 PSA surveys.

Reproductive Health law has now gaining a support from the government officials even in the rural ares who already understand the importance of this law.