PopCom Executive Director Usec. Juan Antonio Perez III (File photo)
MANILA – The Commission on Population and Development (PopCom) is about to update the United Nations (UN) on the country's population growth data after the latter included the Philippines as one of the eight countries that are projected to contribute more than half of the world's population by 2050.
Apart from the Philippines, the UN also included the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, and the United Republic of Tanzania.
Reappointed PopCom Executive Director Undersecretary Juan Antonio Perez III said the UN probably based their analysis from the country's 2015-2020 data wherein the country was still averaging at 2.7 or almost three children per mother before the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) hit.
Perez said data from 2015 to 2020 showed the average annual population growth in the Philippines was at 1.5 million.
In 2021, even if the country recorded 1.3 million births, the lowest recorded in the last five decades, it also logged 850,000 deaths due to Covid-19 and other diseases, bringing the country's population growth down to 450,000, as recorded by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
Perez said the UN is still unaware of these latest figures.
"Nung 2020, 900,000 pa ang nadagdag. Ang nangyayari kasi maraming namamatay dahil sa Covid-19 kung kaya yung population growth natin mas mababa (In 2020, 900,000 was added. What happened was a lot died because of Covid-19 that's why our population growth was less)," he said.
"Pero batay sa PSA, nung 2020, bumaba na ito (But according to PSA, in 2020, it decreased to only) to 1.8 children per woman. Mas maliit na ang pamilyang Pilipino ngayon. Nangyari lang ito dahil dito sa panahon ng Covid. Kaya siguro, iu-update namin ang UN na malaki pa rin ang bilang ng nanganganak sa Pilipinas, 1.3 million pero hindi na ganon kalaki ang pamilyang Pilipino kaysa dati (The Filipino family now is smaller). This happened only because of Covid. That's why maybe we will update the UN stating there is still a lot of births in the Philippines, 1.3 million but a Filipino family is not that big anymore compared before)," Perez said.
PopCom is planning to strengthen its reproductive health programs within the term of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to reach the other 1 to 2 million women who still need to be informed and educated about family planning.
Perez said they will focus on families of farmers and fisherfolk to make the food producers of the country more productive and achieve food security. (PNA)
