The Responsible Parenting Movement

By Alex Vidal

"Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from its readiness to fit in with our instinctual wishful impulses" SIGMUND FREUD.

During the "Media Forum on the Responsible Parenting Movement" spearheaded by the Commission on Population (POPCOM) Region VI last December 21 at the Iloilo Grand Hotel, Director Vicente "Bugoy" N. Molejona, echoing the memorandum issued by Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, emphasized the need to promote the Responsible and Natural Family Planning Program’s primary policy objective, three years birth spacing and breastfeeding which are "good for the health of the mother, child, family and community."
Molejona said, "to mitigate poverty and hunger, which are aggravated by large family size and increasing population, President Arroyo directed the Department of Health (DOH) and the Commission on Population (POPCOM) to formulate and carry out an aggressive and systematic strategy to promote Responsible Parenting and Natural Family Planning."
Objectives: To empower the Filipino Families through Responsible Parenting in order to: 1. Make couples aware of their basic responsibilities as parents, awakening in them a sense of responsibility and commitment towards their family, neighbors community, society and nation as a whole; and 2. Consider responsible parenting as a way of life towards the attainment of Sustainable Human Development.
Molejona also explained the difference between "parenting" and "parenthood." Parenting, he said, is "the skills, experiences, abilities and responsibilities involved in rearing and educating a child. The will and the ability of parents to respond to the needs and aspirations of the family and children." Parenthood, he stressed, is "the state of being a parent. Traditionally, it means being a biological father or mother to a child. When adoption is involved, it means the legal mother or father (or parents) of the child."
In a power point presentation, Molejona presented the "Economic Burden of Infant Formula: P430 million spent on health care costs—hospitalization, health facility visits, drugs; one billion pesos of lost wages attending sick to children; P320 million for funeral costs. In the "Economic Burden of Infant Formula": P21.5 billion is wasted every year on infant formula plus an unnecessary expenditure that burdens Filipino society, he said. Meanwhile, on the burden on the poor, Molejona said 25 percent of formula-fed infants are poor; 30 percent of their income wasted on formula; and a further burden dragging many deeper into poverty./MPmailto:madyaas_pen@yahoo.com