After his visit to the Philippines early this year, Pope Francis told reporters en route home to the Vatican that Catholics do not have to "breed like rabbits" and should instead practice responsible parenting.
He should have made that remark while he was
still here.
The country’s population is projected to
reach 101.6 million this year, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority
which is now in the process of
conducting the 14th population census
covering 42,028 barangays nationwide.
The 101.6 million forecast is roughly 10
percent higher than the 2010 official count. The annual growth rate is 2.1
percent, slightly slower than the 2.42 percent rate from 1990 to 1995.
In the first census in 1903, during the
American colonial period, the country’s population stood at only 7.6 million.
The number of Filipinos in 1970 was 36 million. The census undertaken in 2010
showed the official population count at 92.3 million.
The Philippines is now ranked No. 12 in the
world in terms of population. But roughly one-fourth of all Filipinos live on
the edge of poverty. That raises the question: Are we prepared to provide the
basic necessities of food, clothing and shelter to 25 million Filipinos?
Apparently not.
According to Socioeconomic Planning
Secretary and concurrent NEDA Director General Arsenio Balisacan, getting
accurate statistical information from the ongoing census is the key to
effective allocation of scarce government resources.
If government resources are scarce, why
should we allow Filipinos to breed like rabbits?
We now have the Reproductive Health Law to
enable families to practice family
planning and thus reduce our population growth rate to a manageable level.
"A manageable level" should be one
that would allow already scarce government resources for health, education,
housing and social protection to reach every segment of the population. As of
now, 25 million Filipinos cannot even get basic social services and must eke
out a hand-to-mouth existence. –End-
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