MANILA – At the rate babies are being born, there will be a total of 184.4 million Filipinos 30 years from now, or in 2040, the official assigned to defuse the country’s “population bomb” revealed.
Tomas Osias, the director of the Population Commission (Popcom), explained the rapid increase in the number of Filipinos arises from its unabated growth rate of 2.04 percent annually, one of the highest not only in the Asia-Pacific but also in the entire world.
Based on such rate, the projected 184.4 million total population in 2040 is more than double that of the present number of Filipinos estimated at about 92 million as of 2009, Osias said.
One of the main reasons for the unabated increase, Osias said, is that Filipino women have a high fertility rate, averaging three births during their fertile years.
Compounding the situation, Osias added, is that 24 percent of Filipinos today are bracketed in the adolescent category and that almost 50 percent represents individuals who are aged 15 and over.
This indicates the high fertility rate among the women who are expected to give birth to more children in the next several years, Osias warned.
Earlier, demographers also warned that due to lack of political will, the Philippines has fallen behind its Asian neighbors, like Thailand, Malaysia and even Indonesia, in the efforts to defuse the population bomb.
While its neighbors have succeeded in reducing dramatically their annual population growth rates to as low as 1.2 percent, as in the case of Thailand, the Philippines continue to linger in the more than two percent level, demographers explained.
Osias joined the demographers in warning that the high growth rate could result in pressing problems, such as scarcity of food and water supply and underdevelopment, particularly in the countryside where most of the “poorest of the poor” Filipinos live on a hand-to-mouth existence.
In Malacanang, Press Secretary Cerge Remonde on Monday expressed grave concern and alarm about the country’s ballooning population as he cited the urgent need for couples to practice responsible parenthood by planning the number of their children.
But as critics pointed out, responsible parenthood under the Arroyo administration means encouraging couples to go for natural family planning methods like withdrawal and abstinence to achieve their objective.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, a devout Catholic, has made natural methods the centerpiece of her administrations population control programme in line with the stand of the Catholic Church, through the influential Catholic Bishops Conference f the Philippines (CBCP).
The Vatican considers the use of artificial birth control methods like the pill, condom, tubal ligation, intrauterine device and the like as “sin.” As such, these should be shunned by the faithful who want to practice family planning.
But in sharp contrast, the Popcom, through Osias, is strongly recommending the implementation of several measures to reduce the high annual population growth rate, such as the use of both natural and artificial family planning methods.
This is in line, Osias pointed out, with Popcom’s thrust on family planning based on four concepts: respect for life, responsible parenthood, birth spacing and informed choice.
To achieve this, Osias proposed a massive information and education campaign on family planning, especially at the grassroots. In particular, he said the youth should be the main targets since they are now facing many issues, like globalization of trade, dispersal of family members, urbanization, climate change and poverty.
But even if such campaign succeeds in bringing dow the growth rate, this does not mean that the automatic and immediate reduction in the number of Filipinos, Osias warned.
He explained the Philippines, due to its mostly young population, the women will continue for a time to have high fertility rate, which means millions of babies being born every year to feed, clothe, house and educate.
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