The Commission on Population and Development (POPCOM) on Monday urged community pantries to give away condoms and pills, recognizing its potential in addressing rising cases of unplanned and teenage pregnancies during the pandemic.
POPCOM said contraceptives are "necessary goods" and their availability in community pantries that cater to less privileged Filipinos can be seen as "filling a void in the rollout of family planning activities greatly disrupted" by the health crisis.
Early this year, POPCOM said it expected over 214,000 unplanned babies will be born in 2021, which would bring the year's newborn count to two million—easily eclipsing the highest number of births in the country since 2000 (at 1.79 million).
Over three million Filipinas have unmet family planning needs exacerbated by COVID-19, a recent study of the University of the Philippines-Population Institute and the United Nations Population Fund found.
“POPCOM is very much supportive of community pantries as a form of collective action in alleviating the need for sustenance of our less privileged. We believe that they will welcome the addition of condoms and pills among the goods they will source—with the help of their local healthcare personnel,” said Undersecretary for Population and Development Juan Antonio Perez Juan Antonio Perez III.
He said pantry organizers should seek the support of local health personnels to have a more guided distribution for contraceptive methods like pills which require a prescription or enrollment in the family planning program.
Condoms on the other hand may be freely given to those who want to avoid unplanned pregnancies, HIV infections and other sexually transmitted infections or STIs, Perez said.
He said that the commission has directed its regional offices to actively take part in community pantries in their locale to carry out such vision.
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