Government officials who refuse to implement the family planning program due to their Catholic beliefs should resign or else be assigned to an “empty room,” President Duterte said last weekend.
The President told State health officials bothered by their religious beliefs to “leave government” after expressing concern about the country’s ballooning population.
“Itong mga health officials, if you cannot follow the family planning law of the government, you better resign. If you have the scruples to fight with ‘yung ano na sa pari then you go out or I’ll just assign you to an empty room. All of you there. Tutal kung hindi ko natanggal, ganun ang style ko,” Duterte said during the “Give Us This Day” program with Pastor Apollo Quiboloy last Saturday.
“You are not performing? You do not follow government policy? It gets into your religious beliefs? Then step down. Leave the government because we have…We are now 110, the second highest,” he said.
The President said the country has become a “baby machine” compared to the population growth of other nations. “You are forced to even believe that wala na ginawa ang Pilipino kung hindi mag-rapapap,” Duterte said.
He has blamed the Catholic Church for the country’s fast growing population after supposedly trying to stop family planning methods implemented by the government.
The government recently announced plans to provide 11.3 million women access to modern contraceptives under its intensified family planning program in the country.
The implementation plan for the National Program on Family Planning was approved by Duterte and Cabinet during a meeting in Malacañang last March.
According to presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo, the family planning program aims to prevent four million unintended pregnancies and two million cases of abortion.
The government’s family planning program likewise aims to reduce poverty incidence from 20 percent to 14 percent in 2022.
As of August 2015, the country’s population is 100,981,437 based on a government census. The country had 92,337,852 Filipinos in 2010, and 88,548,366 in 2007. (Genalyn Kabiling)
