Speaker wants enough funds for RH Law implementation

(File) Women carry their children during a medical mission for flood victims, by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), in Tondo, Manila August 30, 2013.

MANILA - House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez wants to make sure that the proposed 2017 budget has enough funds to implement the Reproductive Health (RH) Law.

Alvarez wants to make sure that the proposed health department budget has funding for the massive information and education drive on family planning down to the barangay level, in order to address the growing population.

Alvarez sought media's help for the dissemination campaign to have a more widespread reach. 

He added that no amount of government initiative will be enough if the population growth will not be addressed first.

Alvarez also told critics of the RH law to finally recognize that overpopulation should be a cause for concern.

If anyone has a better option to address population growth, then the leadership is willing to consider it. If not, then he needs everyone's cooperation in finding a solution.

Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas said he will implement the Speaker's wishes.

"If the Speaker orders them to safeguard it, then they will guard it until it reaches the bicameral level,” he said.

President Rodrigo Duterte has been a staunch supporter of population control, saying curbing population growth is key in addressing poverty.