Lizzie Zobel on family planning, love & Jaime

Ever since I started writing for the STAR, I have done only three interviews so far. In 2000, I interviewed then relationships guru and DJ (and still relationships guru and now station manager of "Wave" and "Jam" radio stations) Joe D’Mango, followed by retail queen and Shoemart Inc. president Teresita Sy-Coson. Four years after, I am on my third interview, this time with Elizabeth "Lizzie" Eder Zobel de Ayala, Colombian-born wife of Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, president and CEO of Ayala Corporation, one of the largest conglomerates in the country. Jaime and Lizzie have four children – Mariana, 16, Jaime Alfonso, 14, Eugenia, 10 and Mercedes, eight months.

I hardly do interviews because I am not cut out to do serious ones, but not when the person and or the issue highly interests me.

I met Lizzie one morning in her elegant home in one of the exclusive villages in Makati. Her lanai felt so comfortable I told her that I could spend the whole afternoon sleeping on the sofa under the ceiling fan. She says that a house is for family and friends, and one should really feel comfortable there. I told her that some people still keep the plastic covers on the sofas, it’s as if they don’t want anyone to sit on them.

"Yes, I noticed that," she said, "and I thought that it was only in Latin America that they did that."

"I thought it was only the Chinese who did that," I told her.

In fact, red sofas covered in plastic to be more specific. I know that the color red is for luck, but I don’t know what the plastic cover is for.

She replied, "Maybe it’s a Third World phenome-non."

This interview with Lizzie was not to ask her what her favorite shoe brand was (although I was able to find out that it is J.P. Tods). I am one of the worst- dressed people on this planet, and I couldn’t possibly get myself to do a fashion interview on a woman who is always in the best-dressed list of every fashion editor.

Lizzie Zobel is a staunch advocate of family planning, and I decided to interview her because I do believe in this cause myself. Not that family planning resulted in my having only one child after 11 years of marriage. The reason for this is more of a parched uterus and conked out ovaries and now, old age, but this is another story.

Lizzie is a board member of Friendly Care Foundation and the Family Planning Forum of the Philippines. In this interview, Lizzie explains what the foundation is all about and why she believes that family planning should be a national policy in our country.

Philippine STAR: Please tell me all about the Friendly Care Foundation.

Lizzie Zobel: Friendly Care Foundation was put up in 1999 based on a model set up in Latin America 30 years ago called Profamilia. Profamilia and Family Care both share the same goal of providing general health care services including family planning counseling. Friendly Care now has nine clinics in the country – seven in Metro Manila, one in Cebu and one in Davao.

When it comes to your family planning needs, we ask three basic questions: How many children do you have? How many children would you want to have? How can we help you to plan your family properly?

Which I think are fair questions. It’s not like we’re forcing contraception. We are exploring with our customers their family planning needs.

Who started the Friendly Care Foundation?

It was set up by former Secretary of Health Jimmy Galvez-Tan after he left the government service. At the time it was set up the board of trustees was composed of Abraham Co as chairman, Galvez-Tan as president and CEO, and the board members were Washington Sycip, Oscar Lopez, Margie Moran Floirendo, Maribel Ongpin, Aurora Silayan Go, Alex Herrin and myself. USAID provided the financial and technical support.

Eventually, Jimmy left to pursue a political career. Alberto Romualdez, who was Secretary of Health during the time of President Estrada, took over. Currently, the foundation is being managed by Leni Cuesta who comes from the private sector.

Did Latin America have the same population growth problem as the Philippines at that time?

Yes, in fact the reason we used Latin America as a model is that there were similarities between Latin America and the Philippines. We are both a Catholic environment. We have the same political tensions of a developing country, the same economic pressures, the same inequalities.

How did you become a board member?

In 1999, a group of local congressmen and senators, private individuals and family planning advocates traveled to Colombia to gain insights into the model that had been so successful in Latin America. They came back convinced that this was the answer to our problem on family planning. When they came back, they invited me to be part of the board.

Please tell me about Profamilia.

Profamilia was an NGO founded 30 years go by the private sector and has 25 clinics in Colombia. Because they’ve been so successful, the model of Profamilia has been reproduced in Latin America. They give consultancies to other countries.

How did the government react?

Luckily for us, the government did acknowledge the need to provide reproductive health services to women and make it a national policy.

The government succeeded despite the Church. . .

My grandmother’s best friend, Isabel Mallarino, headed the DSWD in Colombia and was responsible for implementing their family planning program successfully. I asked her, "How did you do it?"

Isabel said, "I went to visit the cardinals. They said, "Okay, you have a job to do and we have a job to do. Our jobs are different. Just don’t confront us in public.’"

In other words, the cardinals said that if they would be asked in public if they would support the family planning policy, they would openly say that they wouldn’t support it.

So there was no confrontation and that’s how Isabel did it. The good thing here is that the cardinals identified their job as different from the DSWD’s job.

I heard that your family in Colombia has always been staunch family planning advocates.

That’s right. And not only my mother but my grandmother. But this is not about population control. It’s a word I dislike. It’s like you had a master plan and took away an individual’s right to make his own decisions. But what disturbs me is the fact that the top 20 percent of the income earners in the Philippines are having an the average 2.1 children while the bottom 20 percent have on the average 6.1 children. Does this mean that family planning is accessible only to the educated and the wealthy?

Why do you think the low-income earners have so many kids? (This is one of those things that everyone jokes about. The usual answers are that have nothing else to do and they have no electricity at night.)

They say that it’s because these people feel that if they have several kids, one of them will likely be a superstar or the president of the Philippines. But I don’t agree with that. When we go out and do surveys, 94 percent of the Filipinos say they want access to family planning.

Have you done research on this matter?

When we look at our statistics, we have one of the highest infant and maternal mortality rates in the region. People have to realize the need to space their children and make responsible choices on the size of their families. But unless we have a national policy that delivers the information and services, women will continue to be in the position that we find them today. In fact, I believe that the lack of access to contraception makes people turn to abortion.

Abortion...

The Department of Health reported 450,000 cases of abortion in 2003.

450,000?! Where did you get that number?

If you go to a government hospital, the attending doctor must record all cases of attempted abortion, successful or not. We have not even counted the women who have had successful abortions and did not need further medical attention. Like those women who use the concoctions they sell in Quiapo.

Yes, I’ve seen them. Antidotes that are pampalaglag and pamparegla are sold in bottles on the sidewalk. Some people say that family planning advocates are not pro-life.

On the contrary, having a no family planning policy is actually a pro-abortion policy. When you don’t give women access to contraception they are forced to go through abortion. It’s not only the health consequences that affect the woman but the moral weight of the decision – how to face the family after going through something like this.

What do you think are the effects of having too many children on women, children and men?

For the women, they face a health and emotional burden. We are also placing too much financial pressure on men who can’t face their problems and then escape their responsibilities. The children cannot get access to proper education because the resources are divided. They do not get sufficient nutrition which leads to developmental problems later on. These children live in high tension homes because their parents’ relationship starts to deteriorate.

What do you think is the main problem?

This is not about a major master plan about giving Filipinos the right to space and control the size of their families. If you think you want to have six children, then that’s your individual right. But if you’re having children because you’re having sex and not because you’re willing to take responsibility to take care of them, then that’s where the problem lies.

Why do you think the government doesn’t want to get involved?

The decision makers in government have been unable to separate themselves from what they perceive to be the Church’s position on family planning.

I think that we have a wonderful, caring Church that comforts and guides us spiritually. But we need a government that takes care of us in terms of our health care needs.

I understand that the Reproductive Health Bill is now stuck in congress because some people are calling it the "Pro-Abortion Bill." Why are these people associating this bill with being pro-abortion?

The only mention of abortion is in a sentence that asks doctors that if a woman displays any health risks as a consequence of an abortion, that they be taken care of.

These people grabbed on to the word abortion in the bill and wanted to abolish the entire bill altogether. Those of us who believe in the Reproductive Health Bill say that doctors have an obligation to attend to patients whose lives are in danger. For example, if a man tried to kill himself and didn’t succeed, don’t we have the moral right to save this man’s life? Are we going to allow him to die?

For someone who belongs to a conservative business clan, you are quite outspoken. Or are you conservative?

Jaime’s family starting with his mother Bea has always been behind this family planning advocacy. My mother-in-law has been involved in many organizations such as the Leproserium and Elsie Gaches where she really worked starting at ground zero. There are a number of men and women who constantly ask her for help with contraception! She’s seen what the lack of family planning access has done to this country. But my mother-in-law always says that it’s still the individual’s right to determine what size of family he or she wants to have.

Speaking of family, you are married to one of the country’s more handsome, intelligent, and successful businessman. What is that one thing you really like about your husband?

Jaime is just so...reliable.

Reliable. I like that word. I hear the word "loving" all the time.

I can count on him when I need him. He’s supportive. If he gives me his word, he’s true to it. He comes home at the same time every night, 7 p.m.

My husband is also very reliable. He also comes home at the same time every night, 12 midnight.

But he’s a lawyer, isn’t he?

Even then! What sort of a person is Jaime?

I was 21 when I married Jaime. He was 28. That was in 1987 and I was right out of college. When I married him I thought I was liberal-minded. It was Jaime who taught me the real definition of liberal thought.

For example, in so many ways, Jaime lives by the "live and let live" motto. He really respects the individual right of every person. He’s not judgmental. He’s modern in his thinking. That’s why people think he’s conservative. It’s because he makes decisions that are suitable to a particular environment. People call him conservative. He’s not. He’s very dynamic. He’s always exploring new ways of doing things.

Here comes the corny question.... How did you meet?

I was in my junior year in Boston College, an undergraduate in Philosophy and Economics. Jaime was doing his MBA in Harvard. We met at a party called the Booz Cruise!

You mean drink to death?

(Laughter) Yes, very embarrassing, can you believe that? We were stuck on a yacht so there was no other place to go.

It wasn’t love at first sight. But I thought that he was the best looking man I ever saw on this planet. We met at the last part of the Booz Cruise. He had a date that never made it, I don’t know why. And I had a male friend with me at the party with. Last minute, my date had to go for an interview. Jaime was alone and I was alone. My Panamanian roommate had a date and was fed up with me sitting beside them like a wallflower. I think he was looking for a way to get rid of me. So he said, "Look, there’s a guy looking in our direction." So this Panamanian date of my Panamanian roommate finally made it possible for Jaime to introduce himself.

We became friends and after a few months we started dating. We graduated 15 days apart and married a month later at our family chapel at our sugar mill. Our family was into sugar in Colombia. I moved to the Philippines in 1987.

How has it been so far?

I’ve been very happy here. I’ve had so many opportunities, so many exciting experiences. My children were born in the Philippines and they’re Filipinos.

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