RP population to hit 88.1 M

The country’s population is expected to hit 88.1 million in 2007 with an estimated 1.7 million babies to be born this year, the Commission on Population (PopCom) said yesterday.

PopCom executive director Tomas Osias said the country’s population growth rate has been declining in the past years, but the "absolute number" of Filipinos continues to rise.

Osias said the current population growth of 1.95 percent is high in relation to the ideal total fertility rate of 2.1 percent.

"(Total fertility rate) means that the average number of children born to a woman during her child-bearing age of 15 to 49 is 3.5 percent or at least three children," he said.

At present, the total fertility rate is pegged at 3.5 percent, he added.

Osias said to achieve the total fertility rate of 2.1 percent, each Filipino woman must give birth to only two children.

"To achieve the ideal fertility rate of 2.1 percent, our PGR (population growth rate) must also go down to less than 1 percent," he said. "However, a PGR reduction from 2.36 to a projected 1.95 is already a very good performance for the Philippines. If the trend continues, we can catch up with Thailand after some time."

Osias said from 2001 to 2003, the country’s population was increasing by 1.6 million new babies every year.

During this period, the population growth rate was 2.36 percent, he added.

Osias said between 1960 and 1970, the Philippines and Thailand were on equal footing in social, demographic and economic status. Their population growth rates were both at three percent, he added.

Osias said Thailand became more aggressive in its population management program, while the Philippines was held back by strong opposition from the Catholic Church to the promotion of artificial methods of birth control.

In 2000, Thailand’s population growth rate went down to 1.05 percent, he added.

Osias said he is confident that with the establishment of the Responsible Parenting Movement (RPM), the government would be able to manage the population well.

Through the RPM program, the government hopes to balance the promotion of natural and artificial methods of family planning in the Philippines, he added.

Earlier, Osias said RPM primarily targets couples that use traditional methods like withdrawal and calendar to plan their families.

The methods are not being promoted because they are ineffective, he added.

These couples stay away from contraceptives, primarily because of their religious belief and fear of side effects, Osias said.

With RPM, PopCom intends to get these couples into using scientific natural methods:

• Lactation amenorrhea method;

• Standard days method;

• Sympto-thermal method;

• Basal body temperature; and

• Cervical mucus methods like billing ovulation, Mercedes Wilson and two-day method.

Under RPM program, PopCom is hoping to educate 4.2 million couples from 42,000 barangays nationwide from 2007 to 2010 about responsible parenting and family planning.

In 2004, the country’s population growth rate went down to 2.05 percent, and the population rose then by 1.7 million.

The population growth rate was reduced further to 1.95 percent starting 2005, but 1.7 million new babies were still being contributed to the population annually.