Last Saturday, April 9, exactly one month before our elections, I was privileged to be a panelist for the Candidate’s Forum for individuals running for office in Puerto Princesa City and Palawan province. The question and answer-style forum was organized by Palawan News, The Corregis Group, JCI Peacock and other organizations.
I was disappointed that many of the incumbent candidates did not attend the forum. The week before, Mayor Bayron attended his panel in order to answer questions with former Mayor Hagedorn, which made for a more informative forum. However, on the 9th, Governor Alvarez, Vice Governor Socrates, Congressman Hagedorn, Congressman Alvarez, Councilor Mendoza, Councilor Ventura and a few others did not participate. It’s a shame as it was a missed opportunity for them to let the people of Palawan know where they stand on important issues of the day.
The candidates who did participate deserve a shout-out for taking the time to participate and answer questions. I’ve included their names at the end of this article.
I was invited to be a panelist for this forum and ask questions pertaining to women and children. Naturally, I asked questions mostly relating to reproductive health. I’m going to discuss some thoughts and reactions to three of the answers that candidates gave me.
I started by asking all the candidates for Governor, if they were elected, if they would support the implementation of the RH Law by allocating the needed funds into programs that will provide poor people with free contraceptives, and free prenatal care.
All three candidates for Governor, Ventura, Relox and Lopez, said that they would support the Reproductive Health Law and talked about the need to give education to parents so that they only have the children that they can care for.
I liked their answers, of course, but I was bothered by the direction that the conversation went. All three candidates started talking about “the women”. They cited the need to educate “the women” and make sure “the women” don’t have too many children. I don’t think any of the candidates were recognizing that often, this is not a choice or a decision left to women. More often than not, women who are not using contraceptives have been forbidden by their husbands to use them. And often, couples practicing natural family planning methods are fine until the night the husband gets drunk and demands sex even if it’s a fertile period. Politicians must recognize that education efforts and campaigns regarding reproductive health must also involve men, since men are often the impediments to proper birth spacing.
Later, I asked Congressional candidates Abueg and Parangue what they would do to address the growing problem of HIV infection in Puerto Princesa and Palawan province. Congressman Abueg noted that he has filed HIV-related bills in Congress in order to strengthen government response to the HIV epidemic. He also noted that he has helped secure funds from the Department of Health to boost health programs in Southern Palawan. Mr. Parangue expressed the need to help educate people about HIV to help stop the spread of infections. Later on though, he ended his statement by noting that people with HIV should be isolated from other people, since they are dangerous. He said this with a smile and did not seem to realize how discriminatory and dangerous his opinion was. It seems that people running for office also need education on HIV.
Finally, I asked the candidates for Councilor who among them had an interest in issues relating to youth. Mr. Leo Fantone and Mr. Felipe Papa both indicated they wanted to answer my question. I told them that Palawan has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the country, and that in a recent survey, more than 80% of young people thought that jumping up and down after sex would prevent pregnancy, and that it is impossible to get pregnant if it is your first time to have sex. I asked, if elected, what they would do to improve sex education in schools so that young people won’t believe in this kind of misinformation.
Mr. Papa said that we need to teach young people about sex, and that sex education should be implemented without malice so that young people really learn.
Mr. Fantone expressed surprise that young people would believe these kinds of myths, and said that we need to teach young people about contraception. He noted that sex education is really needed and that we have to make sure young people understand about contraception. Right before his two minutes were up to answer though, he added quickly that he would also encourage young people to go to church, so that they will get scared and won’t have sex until they are married.
Mr. Fantone’s last comments drew laughter from the audience and his fellow candidates, but I was struck by his answer because this is a view that I have seen time and time again from various people. On the one hand, many individuals recognize the need to equip young people with scientific and accurate information about sex. But on the other hand, many want to scare the youth into not having sex until they are married. This latter view ignores the fact that scare tactics do not work on most young people who are contemplating having sex. Simply telling them not to have sex until they are married doesn’t work either.
What has worked in other countries to lower rates of teen pregnancy is to equip young people with the information they need to understand their bodies and know how pregnancy happens, and also give them access to contraceptives so that if they decide to have sex, they do it safely. Until we get to this two-pronged approach, our teen pregnancy rate will just continue to increase.
I enjoyed the panel and appreciated the time that all the candidates took to answer questions. I wish all of the candidates the best of luck and continue to hope and pray for fair and peaceful elections.
Participants in the April 9, 2016 Candidate’s Forum (alphabetical order):
Candidates for Governor:
Richard Lopez
Arnel Relox
Art Ventura
Candidates for Congress:
Frederic Abueg
Manoy Parangue
Candidates for Councilor:
Jerry Abordo
Bobot Alamasco
Ed Antonio
Silverio Blas
Roger Castro
Vicky de Guzman
Earl Dela Cruz
Leo Fantone
Joseph Farjan
Erlinda Ganapin
Al Goh
Ipitacio G. Lao
Felipe Papa
Alfred Pe Tony Reyes