GENERAL SANTOS CITY— The Bangsamoro Population and Development Office (BPDO), in collaboration with the Bangsamoro Darul Ifta (BDI), conducted on Nov. 23, a Muslim Religious Leaders (MRL) Congress to tackle the responsible parenthood and family planning program in the context of Islam.
Held in this city, participants to the event were thirty-six (36) MRLs from the province of Maguindanao. BPDO tapped them as their strong influence in the communities can greatly help the office in disseminating correct information on the Islamic perspective of family planning.
BPDO, the region’s interim Population Commission (POPCOM –BARMM), is an attached agency of the Bangsamoro Planning and Development Authority (BPDA).
The assembly also aimed to update and capacitate the MRLS with the BDI and Ministry of Health’s (MOH) latest fatwa or Islamic ruling on family planning.
In the Islamic point of view, family planning is “a systematic and consistent planning of the family wherein members are happy because they worship Allah for good health, better education, and stable income; and they have contributions to the optimum development of the society.”
Family planning in Islam is not birth control, and it is not limiting the number of children by using various planning methods. According to a fatwa, jurists have agreed that aborting a child at the stage when he/she starts to breath is absolutely prohibited because it is apparently killing a person with a complete physiological structure.
In his speech read by BPDO Officer-in-Charge Mary Ann Abutazil, BPDA Director General Engr. Mohajirin Ali hopes that the public will coordinate in the implementation of the family planning advocacy in the region.
“Sa tulong ng BDI, nawa’y magampanan namin ang aming layunin na maging gabay upang palawakin ang kamalayan ng Bangsamoro community sa tama at wastong pamamaraan ng pagbuo ng pamilya na napapaloob sa values at rulings ng Islam,” he said.
In response, Ustadz Mohammad Pangca said that the BDI is ready to cooperate in any projects and programs that will need their guidance.
“Ito’y mahalaga dahil malalaman ng mag-asawang Bangsamoro ang kanilang magiging mga responsibilities and duties ng bawat isa at maisasagawa nila. Napakalaking bagay nito kasi magkakaroon sila ng understanding at mutual cooperation […] at ang pinakamahalaga ay mapangalagaan natin ang ating mga anak,” he stressed.
“Itong usapin ng family planning at reproductive health ay dapat bigyan ng pansin lalo na nang BTA (Bangsamoro Transition Authority), kung hindi nila i-revise yung dating law ay sana magkaroon ng bagong bill tungkol sa family planning according to Islamic teaching and anchored to the BARMM advocacy on Moral Governance,” he also said.
Similar activity will be also conducted to BARMM’s other provinces, Cotabato City, and Special Geographic Area. (Bangsamoro Information Office)
