DAVAO CITY – Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Z. Duterte urged residents here, particularly couples, to consider their financial capacity before deciding to have children in his State-of-the-City Address on August 6.
DAVAO City Mayor Sebastian ‘Baste’ Duterte delivers his State-of-the-City Address (SOCA) on Tuesday, August 5, with brother Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte in attendance. (Photo via Ivy Tejano)
The local chief executive emphasized the importance of family planning and the administration’s efforts in promoting the program in a speech.
Duterte said a healthy and thriving community begins with responsible parents who can provide for their children's basic needs, such as shelter, nutrition, security, and education.
“My appeal to the people of Davao is not to have children if you cannot afford them. Check your financial capacity before adding a child to the family,” Duterte said in a local dialect.
“If you find that the costs of living, school supplies, food, rice, and other essentials are too high, reassess your decision. Please think of the child who would only suffer,” he added.
Duterte said that having a child under these circumstances, considering the continuous inflation that the country is going through, could lead to hardship for children and the family.
“As they grow, they might have to work and will likely remember the times they were hungry, not properly cared for, or unable to receive proper education due to hardships,” he said.
Duterte said that there is nothing wrong with having a large population as there are jobs and people to work in businesses. However, he said, the whole nation could not keep up.
He added that if the population grows unusually large, the infrastructure development can’t keep up with the limited resources and the time frame for building roads, and housing units.
Duterte cited some schools operating with two shifts due to the high number of students. As a result, he said the quality of education for some youth, if not all, may deteriorate.
“Since the situation made it difficult for several to receive proper education, finding employment and accessing healthcare can also be challenging. It creates a repetitive cycle,” he said.
Duterte reiterated his call for everyone to reassess their decision and be cautious about having children. He said there are options, such as ligation and vasectomy, to manage family planning.
The Davao City Health Office (CHO) recorded that 169,423 people here have availed of the city’s modern or natural family services as of July 2024.
As Davao City intensifies its responsible parenthood and family planning programs, the free no-scalpel vasectomy continues and has been accepted by 127 people since July last year.
In line with health programs here, Duterte also reported that from July 2023 to May 2024, the Marilog District Hospital situated in a far-flung area conducted 383 minor surgeries and provided services to 4,085 patients.
The hospital also provided prenatal care to 1,271 pregnant mothers and conducted 232 deliveries. Its Animal Bite Treatment Center treated 2,292 patients.
Duterte said the Paquibato District Hospital, another hospital situated for the residents in the area, has served 15,919 patients in the outpatient department and had 173 patients admitted for medical interventions.
From July 2023 to May 2024, the Lingap Program has assisted 198,804 clients and the city has opened 11 Botika ng Bayan, which has already served over 1.3 million people to date.
Investments
Meanwhile, Duterte said that the city government continues to approve investments and incentives to make this city more lucrative for investors.
Duterte said as of July 2024, the city has approved P1,080,548,400 billion in actual investments from companies in the manufacturing, agri-business, and technology sectors.
He revealed that there are P3 billion more investment pledges lined up for the rest of the year for interested investors in the investment areas of health, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), social enterprise, tourism, manufacturing, and agri-business.
“We now have 14 local sister cities from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, and five sister cities abroad. Arrangements are currently made for possible sisterhood agreements with five other local cities and municipalities and five international cities,” he said.
Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) from 2021 to 2022 said Davao City contributed the biggest share to the Davao region’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with 51.8 percent.
In 2023, Region 11 had the fifth fastest-growing economy in the Philippines and the highest in Mindanao with a 6.7 percent growth rate, much of this attributed to Davao City, Duterte said, as he lauded the collective efforts of all concerned agencies and offices in the city.
Duterte also reported that Davao City accounted for the largest share of the national GDP among pilot highly urbanized cities (HUCs) outside the National Capital Region (NCR) in 2022 based on the report released by the PSA on March 5, 2024.
Davao City had the largest share of 2.5 percent in 2022, followed by the cities of Cebu, Cagayan de Oro, and Baguio, with 1.4 percent, 1.3 percent, and 0.8 percent, respectively.