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What do you think are the reasons of high unmet need of FP in the Philippines?
After gaining a thorough understanding of this major issue in our country, I believe the following factors or reasons contribute to the high unmet need for family planning: (1) lack of knowledge among families or partners about family planning, particularly the use of contraceptives, (2) lack of knowledge about the efficacy of certain contraceptives, and (3) financial constraints in obtaining these contraceptives (Caster, Perez, & Biddlecom, 1997; Nagai et al., 2019). All of the aforementioned factors, however, I believe, are founded on the Philippine government's incompetence.
According to our lecture, 22% of married women are capable of becoming pregnant but do not wish to have a child within the next two years or at all, and do not use contraceptives. Based on this information, it's possible that these married women don't know how to utilize contraceptive methods or that there are other underlying reasons. However, a reasonable argument here is that if these mothers were aware of contraceptives, they may have attempted to use one if they didn't want to become pregnant. For the second factor, married women are now more aware of the usage of contraceptive techniques; however, the difficulty is that they are under-informed since they do not yet know which contraceptive method will work best for them. The third factor has to do with the price of contraceptives. Contraceptives have long been available in our country, but they are only affordable to individuals in the middle and upper classes. However, I read in an article that Pres. Duterte signed an executive order requiring government agencies to extend access to contraception, particularly for poor women, but court decisions and budget cuts have prevented full implementation (Domonoske, 2017).
After reading a few more papers on the subject, I've come to the conclusion that the Philippines' unmet need of FP is owing to the Philippine government's inability to raise knowledge about good contraception usage and allocate adequate funding for it. It's wonderful to hear that the government has begun to prepare for fixing this issue, but the fact that they were only able to begin and not finish due to what they call "budget cuts" shows that they don't actually value this. This, I feel, is far more significant and can help the Filipino people as a whole than other initiatives such as the beautification of Manila Bay.
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What are ways you can suggest to increase the practice of FP in the country? Give least 1-2 suggestions.
I believe that the best two approaches to promote the use of FP in the Philippines are to educate all Filipinos, especially women of reproductive age, and not only those who are planning to create a family. This issue, in my opinion, should be normalized and taught widely, particularly in public schools. I am convinced that education will address the majority of the issues. The second way I'd recommend is that we keep communicating our concerns to the government about this situation. Let's face it, our government's ineptitude is to blame for half of the problem, if not the majority. Allow people in positions of power to be held responsible. Another proposal I'd like to make is to vote for leaders who deserve to be elected. Leaders who sincerely care about the Filipino people's well-being.
References:
Casterline, J. B., Perez, A. E., & Biddlecom, A. E. (1997). Factors underlying unmet need for family planning in the Philippines. Studies in family planning, 28(3), 173–191.
Domonoske. (2017). In Majority Catholic Philippines, Duterte Orders Better Access To Birth Control. NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/01/12/509462732/in-majority-catholic-philippines-duterte-orders-better-access-to-birth-control
Nagai, Bellizzi, Murray, Kitong, Cabral, Sobel, & Micks, (2019). Opportunities lost: Barriers to increasing the use of effective contraception in the Philippines. PLOS ONE, 14(7), e0218187–. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0218187