When I was in Bohol

We stayed at a very nice resort in Tagbilaran, a mere five minutes from the airport. Bohol Tropics felt like a mini Tagaytay Highlands, in that its rooms were built separately, like little studios along a "main" road. Some of them faced each other, some were built overlooking the sea. There were three big pools within the compound. It has a restaurant built overlooking the sea, and from which one could view the port of Tagbilaran, where some of the participants of our event docked.

We were gathered there for the culminating workshop of the Probe Media Foundation's Population and Media Workshop (Visions for the Present). All the fellows we trained in a series of seminars in Manila in mid-July were back to show us their output: 6 minutes worth of news segments that brought population and development issues to mainstream news. There were a lot of good output, some needed improvement, others needed more training, but it was good to know that all of them exerted so much effort in making their segments really good.

We had viewing sessions and a field trip. The field trip brought us to two areas that had very successful implementation of population and development programs: one in Tagbilaran, and the other in Carmen, (on the way to Carmen, we stopped by a tarsier garden in Loboc, and the Chocolate Hills. But more on that later.) I was extremely impressed with how the local government was serious about making the program a success. They had just set up their local sex health clinic. They gave out condoms and pills at a very reduced price, performed pap smears, various tests -- even pregnancy tests -- at a very low price. They even had dentists, midwives, nurses, surgeons on hand to help. They even gave breastfeeding classes and pre-natal ad post-natal check-ups to mothers nearly for free. They had IEC materials distributed as well. This was all in an effort to reduce the mortality rate of both mothers and babies, as well as to promote healthy sexual practices among the province's residents who are of reproductive age.

Dr. Jabonilla, in particular, impressed me. As health officer of the Carmen health center, she was in charge of running the clinic, and was instrumental in getting more and more sponsors to support their health projects. Because of her work, more people have been flocking to the health center and availing of their services. It is in fact her health center that has the most number of non-scalpel vasectomy acceptors.

The participants got excited. They were equally impressed and wondered how these programs could be implemented in their own provinces. I wanted to do the same for Bugasong. I think this would really benefit them, though major work will need to be done in terms of educating the people and not seeing it as something weird or bastos. A lot of the problems facing the provinces have to do with population and development: people's health, poverty, mortality. I think this can be replicated very well. Most of all, I think it needs to be replicated.

The succeeding days saw us critique-ing and making recommendations for the participants. Melba (of UP Diliman), Lemuel (of PCPD) and Booma (of PPI) made their suggestions and gave their advice regarding the presentation of issues, script structure and treatment. It was a very enriching and educational 4 days not only for the participants, but for me as well. I realized there was indeed still a lot to learn, lots more stories to tell, and many, many places more to visit and marvel at -- and all that could be done right here in the Philippines. It's all a matter of taking that first step.