BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan appealed to parents to spend time looking after their children and guiding them through their growth for them to be able to taught the right values and behaviour that would allow them to achieve success.
The local chief executive expressed deep concern over the continuous surge in teenage pregnancies and maternal deaths not only in the city but also in the different parts of the Cordillera, saying that young adults becoming pregnant were not actually given the right advises by their parents and taught the right values while they were growing old.
He cited the creation of the Baguio-Benguet Reproductive Health Advocacy Network would be a great help in providing the youth with added avenues for misguided teenagers to be given the proper advises for them to be able to reform themselves.
“The sudden surge in teenage pregnancies in Baguio and Benguet should be a cause for concern for concerned local government agencies and local governments to refocus their priority programs to address their problems,” Domogan stressed.
From 19 percent prevalence of teenage pregnancies in the region, health authorities revealed the teenage pregnancies this year soared to 29 percent which should be a cause for alarm in order to prevent today’s youth from being exposed to the wrong values that would ruin their bright future.
Domogan urged parents to continue showing concern to the whereabouts of their children, especially if they do not arrive home early, and for them to look into the background of their friends and acquaintances so that they can provide them the proper guidance before it will be too late on the day.
For her part, La Trinidad Mayor Edna C. Tabanda said one of the ways adopted by the municipal government in order to curb the proliferation of teenage pregnancies was the strict imposition of the curfew for minors in the locality to make sure that teenagers will be home early instead of loitering around the different night establishments operating in the capital town of Benguet.
She expressed disappointment that despite the numerous interventions being implemented by the local government, the prevalence of teenage pregnancies in their place is still high which should be a cause for concern and a wakeup call for parents to reform their ways in dealing with their children.
Tabanda cited the volunteer groups that have continuously extended their assistance in providing teenagers who became pregnant so that they were able to hurdle the problem that came to their life, citing that barangay-based interventions must also be put in place in order for concerned agencies to be able to achieve lower cases of teenage pregnancies in the coming years.
The Baguio Benguet Reproductive Health Advocacy Network is a multi-sectoral organization that spouses the benefits of reproductive health in order to prevent the continues increase in teenage pregnancies and maternal deaths in urban centers regionwide.
By Dexter A. See
