• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson has expressed alarm on the province’s high rate of teenage pregnancies, which he described as a “serious concern”.
Some 11,297 teenagers in Negros Occidental got pregnant in 2022 and 2023, data of the Provincial Health Office (PHO) showed.
The youngest pregnancy involved a 12-year-old, said Dr. Ma. Girlie Pinongan, provincial health officer.
Lacson said he will sit down with the local chief executives to formulate strategies on how to drastically reduce teenage pregnancy occurrence.
Of the 35,628 pregnancies in Negros Occidental last year, a total of 5,721 involved teenagers.
In 2022, the PHO recorded 5,576 teenage pregnancies.
The report further indicated that in Don Salvador Benedicto town, 52 percent of all pregnant women are teenagers, or those aged 19 years old and below.
Expressing his concern, Mayor Laurence Marxlen dela Cruz said he will look into the reasons behind it.
De la Cruz also discovered that majority of the fathers are actually middle aged men or those aged about 40 years old.
“We will help these teenagers through trainings so that even if they are pregnant already they can be productive and have dignity in their lives,” he said.
De la Cruz said that they will coordinate with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) through its Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (KALAHI-CIDSS), a poverty alleviation program of the national government.
Lacson said the concern of teenage pregnancy is not only in Don Salvador Benedicto.
“We have to push all local government units to be united and curb this incidence,” he added.
Lacson also said that the Teresita Lopez Jalandoni Provincial Hospital in Silay City, which has recently been designated as a family planning training center, will play a major role in curbing cases of teenage pregnancy.
PHO records further showed that most teenagers who got pregnant are out-school-youth. | GB
