Teenage pregnancy in the Philippines has gone down in 2022 and the Commission on Population and Development (POPCOM) is ecstatic of the downtrend as it would mean that the young generation of women would be able to fulfill its dream that would eventually result in the gradual addressing of the vicious cycle of poverty in the country.
POPCOM Executive Director Lolito Tacardon said there were two sources of information on the reduction of teenage pregnancy in the Philippines-- one is the survey of the Philippine Statistics Authority which is done every five years through the National Demographic and Health Survey, and the other one is the Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Survey done by the University of the Philippines Population Institute.
Based on the PSA survey, Tacardon said that from 8.5 percent incidence of teenage pregnancy in 2017, women aged 15 to 19 who have begun child-bearing went down to 5.4 percent in 2022.
On the side of the UP Population Institute survey, he said the figure went down to 6.7 percent in 2022 from almost 13 percent since 2017.
"So demographically, the overall fertility level of Filipino women went down and in terms of socio-economics, this is a big help especially that we have been advocating for women to improve their capability to achieve their aspiration like continuing their study," said Tacardon.
"And hopefully and the most important is that through this, we could prevent the general vicious cycle of poverty among adolescent mothers," he added.
Covid-19 Lockdown
While Tacardon said they are happy with the result, he said they are treating the survey results with caution because there is one major factor which they see as the main reason-- the Covid-19 lockdown.
"We are surmising that probably because of the restrictions before which caused limited movement of the youth and and even their interactions that were primarily limited online. So this affected them in terms of sexual activities with their partners," said Tacardon.
"So, that’s something that we have to look into and monitor in the coming years, if indeed the pandemic was the reason," he added.
What the POPCOM wants to see, according to Tacordon, is for the youth to have more responsible decisions, particularly in their sexually-related activities.
The case of 10-14 age bracket
Tacardon said that while the reduction of teenage pregnancy incidents went down, they are actually bothered by another survey result which revealed that pregnancy among the 10-14 age bracket is still high.
Citing the result from PSA, he said around 2,000 pregnancies in the 10-14 age bracket were recorded across the country.
Interventions
Tacardon said the POPCOM, with the help of other government agencies like the Department of Health and the Department of Education, would be able to sustain the reduction of teenage pregnancy in the Philippines.
"That is our expectation, that is our hope that government agencies would continuously work together on the prevention and the reduction of adolescent pregnancy," said Tacardon.
Currently, Tacardon said POPCOM has a legal framework that supports moves to address teenage pregnancy--the Executive Order Number 141 which was signed by then president Rodrigo Duterte.
The EO aims to mobilize all agencies to the incidence of adolescent pregnancy as a national priority.
Under EO 141, the Commission on Population was mandated to come up with a comprehensive action plan, convening all concerned national government agencies to address the problem.
"We are done with the development of the plan and now, we are implementing it," said Tacardon.
5 strategies
The first strategy based on the development plan, according to Tacardon, is the promotion of comprehensive sexuality education targeting the youth in order for them to be more responsible in terms of their sexuality.
He said parents are also included as targets in order for them to use their influence on their children to support the government program.
Second is to intensify the mechanism for adolescents to access reproductive health services.
Third, according to Tacardon, is the preventive mechanism against sexual abuse and violence since it is of the determinants of teenage pregnancy.
Fourth is the improvement of socioeconomic conditions since according to Tacardon, education would serve as the way for the youth to be diverted to more positive aspects like focusing on their job and in achieving their dream.
"And lastly, we have been encouraging our youth to join community activities, especially those being organized by the Sangguniang Kabataan to channel their energy to more productive and positive activities so that they can also contribute in a way to community development in their areas," said Tacardon.