Building resiliency needs family planning–popcom

BUILDING resiliency against pandemics and other natural disasters also means planning Filipino families, according to the Commission on Population and Development (Popcom).

In a statement, the Popcom said overcrowding in households make Filipino families vulnerable to pandemics. The Popcom earlier said 3.785 million Filipinos or 27.2 percent of its 13.867 million population live in 812,584 housing units that are under 20 square meters (sqm) each.

Undersecretary and Popcom head Juan A. Perez III earlier said that with an average number of 4.7 persons in each household, that leaves a living space of only 4.25 sqm per person “making it nearly impossible to achieve physical distancing.”

“Our resiliency against the pandemic and other related crisis situations starts from our decision to form a family. We need to consider our preparedness and capabilities to provide each member their physical, social, emotional, and other pertinent needs,” Perez said.

“When families are planned well, vulnerabilities diminish; thus, communities can overcome major disasters such as pandemics and natural calamities,” he added.

Popcom explained that physical distancing—a critical health and safety protocol being implemented by the government—has proven to be difficult to implement among households of small residential units.

Ideally, Popcom earlier said, there must be a standard of 6 sqm allocated per person to practice social distancing at home. The Popcom said data showed that nearly a third of Metro Manila’s population live in less than 20-square meter homes.

Perez earlier said the poorest in Metro Manila estimated at 2.066 million or 14.9 percent of the megacity’s population live in less than 20 sqm single-detached homes.

“The importance of understanding and considering the demographic situation of populations in formulating development initiatives that aim to uplift lives of people and their communities, especially at this time of the pandemic and the series of natural calamities, cannot be underestimated, given the government’s limited resources,” Perez said.

In accordance with the celebration of Population and Development (Popdev) Week, Popcom called on all government stakeholders and the public to address prevailing issues that affect the integrity of populations and communities.

Perez said practicing family planning and responsible parenthood should be part of medium- to long- term solutions toward building the resiliency of families and communities.

This, Perez said, would enable couples to have greater capacity to ensure their health, financial stability and other social protection in the future.

He also called on local authorities to factor-in population variables in implementing their policies, programs and solutions—moreso in the time of Covid-19 and the so-called “new normal.”