Waray-Waray Youth Advocates (WARAYA)

Family Planning Organization of the Philippines – Samar Chapter

(FPOP-Samar) Corner 5th Street and Mabini Avenue
Catbalogan City, Samar, Philippines
Tel. No. +63 (55) 251-0246 Email: waraya.fpop@gmail.com

Good morning to each and every one.

As I speak today in support of Reproductive Health Bill, I speak in behalf of our

youth organization WARAYA or Waray-Waray Youth Advocates, a registered
youth organization under the National Youth Commission, a member of UNFPA
Philippines Youth Advisory Panel and UNFPA Y-PEER Pilipinas, a peer education
network here in the Philippines and as a partner of YAFA or Youth AIDS Filipinas
Alliance, a network of youth advocates of both positive and non-positive
advocating for HIV and AIDS awareness. WARAYA is the youth arm of FPOP-
Samar or Family Planning Organization of the Philippines – Samar Chapter.
WARAYA was established last July 2004 advocating for Adolescent Sexuality
and Reproductive Health and Right in Catbalogan City and in the Province of
Samar.

I do not only bring in with me the sentiments of young people in our

organization nor of other youth advocates and youth organizations in various
networks we are in, but as well as from other young people in the Philippines
and around the world as manifested during the recently concluded World Youth
Conference in Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico last August 23-25, 2010 and the
Women Deliver Philippines last September 15-17, 2010 for which I attended
and actively participated as representative of WARAYA.

The World Youth Conference was participated in by 208 youth-led NGOs

representing 153 countries that discussed and deliberated topics on Poverty,
Education, Health, Gender Equality, Technology and Innovation, Culture, Justice
and Security, Participation, Sustainable Development, International Migration,
and International Cooperation. In support of the Reproductive Health Bill, one of
the major health recommendations from the NGO Statement was to “Fully
recognize young people’s sexual and reproductive rights, particularly the right
to choose, through achieving universal access to confidential, youth‐friendly
sexual and reproductive health services, including access to evidence‐
based comprehensive sexuality education, in formal and non‐formal settings.”
The Women Deliver Philippines was initiated by the Department of Health and
was participated in by 35 youth-serving and youth-led organizations. The
output of which was a Youth Declaration that expressly urges the 15th Congress
to pass the RH bill now.

The youth today make up nearly half of the global population. According to the
2008 State of the World Population, there are more than 1.5 billion people
between the ages of 10 and 24, the largest generation in human history. The
young people is as diverse as there are many cultures there exist and as
crucial and important as an identity to a nation. In young people we see so
much: fears of incapacity but and hope of power. The young have the might to
greater things but also the risk to desolation. The young people of today are in
a difficult period of adjusting to normal adulthood. The world has seemed more
difficult for us young people to make the journey to adulthood than ever
before. The world is spinning at a pace that boggles the mind and the
imagination. Young people enter adulthood in a time of transformations in the
economy, education, communication, demographics, the environment,
technologies and culture. Adolescent stage can both be fun and exciting yet
can as well be daunting and scary. Social inequality, poor schools, gender
discrimination, unemployment and inadequate health systems, armed conflict,
migration and the spread of HIV and AIDS have added to the worsening
situation of young people.

Studies show that more young people are becoming sexually active resulting in
the increase of cases of unwanted/unplanned pregnancies and sexually
transmitted diseases among the youth. According to the UNAIDS Report for
2008, young people aged 15–24 account for an estimated 45% of new HIV
infections worldwide. Although survey data from 64 countries indicate that 40%
of males and 38% of females ages 15–24 had accurate and comprehensive
knowledge about HIV and about how to avoid transmission (UNGASS Indicator
13), many young people still lack accurate, complete information on how to
avoid exposure to the virus. Some 14 million women and girls between 15 and
19 – married and unmarried – give birth each year. Every day, 182 women die
from complications of unsafe abortion, and nearly 46% of them are under 24
according to IPAS, a global NGO on women’s health and rights.

As the numbers verify the plight of young people from across the globe, it is
commendable that our country, the Philippines is taking its steps through this
Reproductive Health Bill that is yet to be passed. I say, RH bill should be passed
now! Helping adolescents protect their health is an important public health
priority. Beyond benefiting young people themselves, increased investment in
adolescent sexual and reproductive health contributes to broader development
goals, especially improvements in the overall status of women and, eventually,
reductions in poverty among families.

The passage of the RH bill will afford young people access to information
through the implementation of the age-appropriate Comprehensive Sexuality
Education, which will not only educate youth about Adolescent Reproductive
Health but most importantly empower them with life skills to better equip them
for adulthood. As we provide young people with the accurate information,
services should also be afforded. Through the RH bill, access to reproductive
health services will be afforded, which will be ensured through an available,
accessible, affordable and acceptable range of services in terms of culture and
gender sensitivity and youth friendliness.

If you may ask why educate and offer young people reproductive health
information and services? I say because it is their right, our right. Not just as
Reproductive Health rights but as Human Rights. Consequently, it is the
government’s obligation. The constitution explicitly guarantees the protection
and promotion of the right to health of every Filipino people, including us young
people.
The youth comprise an important demographic cohort in the Philippine
population. They are also one of the most vulnerable and yet their potential for
helping solve the issues that they face is so vast. What happens to our young
today will have an impact on their future and that of our society. It makes a lot
of sense to invest in the education and development of young people as they
are also tomorrow’s adults. When we invest in our young, we also fulfil our
responsibility to nurture a caring and responsible society. When we invest in
our young, we are investing in our future. When we create the environment
that will allow them to make responsible choices and to exercise their sexual
and reproductive health and rights, we are solving the problem of the spread of
HIV and STIs/STDs, of unwanted pregnancy and early marriage and even of
abortion. We are laying the ground for them to found families and to be
responsible parents of the future.

Because of this, it will be a real challenge to invest in what matters most. It will
be a challenge to make families and homes more cohesive in their values and
respect for the rights of youth. It will be a challenge for schools to be venues
for learning and development so that young people can be the best that they
can be. It will be a challenge for institutions of faith, to be more attuned to the
realities of time and to care for the moral upbringing of our youth. It will be a
real test to government to be the guarantors and protectors of the fundamental
rights of young people so that they are able to function in a free and supportive
environment.

So invest in the youth, invest in the future!

Pass the RH bill not as legislators and lawmakers who are responding to the
needs of the people, pass the RH bill not just as father, mothers and parents
who dreams of a better future for their children, but pass the RH bill as
individuals and humans who respect the right to an informed choice and the
right to a quality life.

As you involve young people’s voices in this hearing, I am pleased that the
youth are being heard in congruence to the United Nation’s Declaration from
August 2010 to August 2011 as the Internationial Year of the Youth with the
theme “Dialogue and Mutual Understanding”

As a closing, allow me to quote Dr. Nafis Sadik’s commitment written at the

Youth Desk during the 9th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the
Pacific last August 2009 at Bali, Indonesia which I attended. She wrote “No
programs and policies for youth without youth at the table”. It clearly makes
sense that in truly addressing the issues of young people, youth perspective
should be ensured through active and actual youth participation and
involvement. Work with us and not for us. Rather than standing or speaking for
young people, we need to stand with young people speaking for themselves,
for ourselves. We don’t need a political movement for young people, what we
need is to build environments, concrete policies and opportunities wherein
young people’s voices are heard and where rights are respected.

With that, allow me to thank you for listening to this young voice as we young
people hope for the immediate passage of the Reproductive Health Bill.

Ador Leanda Hurtado

Waray-Waray Youth Advocates (WARAYA)