A resolution passed before the Bacolod City Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) earlier this week urged the Bacolod City Health Office and the City Population Office to conduct intensified family planning campaigns throughout the city, citing data from the Philippine Statistics Authority that found 11 percent of pregnancies were from teenage mothers.

According to the legislation, penned by City Councilor Em Ang, the city must “initiate and sustain a heightened multimedia campaign to raise the level of public awareness on the protection and promotion of reproductive health.”

The resolution also noted data from the Population Commission-Region VI that found the population of Bacolod City, as of August 2015, was over 560,000; with a contraceptive prevalence rate, or the percentage of those using contraceptives when engaging in sexual intercourse, at 27 percent – the lowest among highest urbanized cities in the Visayas./PLL, WDJ