Three 12-year-olds getting pregnant alarm POPCOM

ILOILO CITY—The Commission on Population and Development (POPCOM-6) has expressed alarmed after a civil registry data found that three 12-year-olds became mothers in 2019.
 
Citing the data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) for 2019, POPCOM-6 noted that births among girls ages 10-19 is at 9.28 percent.
 
“We have also noticed that live births belonging to adolescents 10-14 years old also increased from 88 in 2018 to 107 in 2019,” said Harold Alfred P. Marshall, POPCOM regional director for Western Visayas.
 
Of all the localities, Capiz had the highest rate of teen pregnancy in Western Visayas with 11.2 percent and followed by Guimaras province 10.5 percent.
 
There’s also 9.73-percent teen pregnancy rate in Aklan province, 9.6 percent in Negros Occidental province, 9.5 percent in Iloilo province, 8.3 percent in Antique province, 7.9 percent in Iloilo City, and 4.3 percent in Bacolod City.
 
To address the situation, POPCOM-6 is coordinating with the local government units (LGUs) and other partner groups in implementing the Adolescent Health and Development (AHD) Program, which aims to boost reproductive and sexual health awareness.
 
POPCOM is also using a mobile application dubbed as “AHlam Na!” for wider reach.