MANILA: The country’s population is expected to reach 97.7m this year due to the 1.7m to 1.8m Filipino babies born every year, the Commission on Population (PopCom) said yesterday.
“This is just an unofficial estimate made by PopCom. Our population in 2010 was 92.3m in absolute number. So based on that, we may estimate that by May 2013, our population will be 97.7m,” said PopCom executive director Tomas Osias.
The National Statistical Coordination Board is the agency mandated to make an estimate of the Philippine population but it has not released a projection so far.
According to Osias, PopCom made the computation based on the annual population growth rate of 1.9 percent. This translates to some 1.7m to 1.8m babies being born every year.
Asked if the passage of Republic Act Number 10354 or the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012 will slow down the country’s population growth, Osias refused to make the connection.
“The law does not have demographic targets,” he said.
Instead, the legislation will only empower couples, especially the women, to make an “informed choice about their reproductive health.”
Osias added that the law would just provide couples with access to services and information about family planning and their reproductive health.
“They will know that birth spacing will be good for the mother’s and the baby’s health. Because of that, they will evaluate their capability (to raise a family). So in the process, the number of the children will be based on the health and future of the family,” he said.
Osias maintained that there is no provision in the law that will mandate couples to limit the size of their family.
“You will not be told not to have a child anymore after two kids or something like that. There are no demographic or family size targets. What we are saying is, they will be the ones to determine what is good for the family in terms of health and the capacity to give the children a better future,” he added.
Meanwhile, a Catholic couple has asked the Philippines’ top court to stop a historic birth control law, their lawyer said yesterday, in the first of many legal challenges church leaders have vowed against the measure.
The petition was filed on Wednesday at the Supreme Court by lawyer James Imbong and his wife, who claim the law signed by President Benigno Aquino two weeks ago was unconstitutional.
Imbong’s mother Jo, who is representing the couple in the case and is the lawyer for the influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, said that “the state has no business entering the bedroom”.
“This law corrupts Philippine culture, mainly the emphasis we put on family values and marriage, taking care of children and parenting,” she said, having earlier warned that lay Catholics would challenge the law in court.
The Philippine constitution guaranteed the protection of the family and in passing the law “the government overstepped its powers”, Jo Imbong said.
“This is just the first salvo,” she added. “We are paving the way for other similar suits from many faith-based groups.”
Imbong said big “prayer rallies” were also being planned across the country in the weeks to come.
The law will take effect on January 17, unless the Supreme Court issues an injunction. Court officials have not indicated if they will hear legal challenges to the law before then.
The law requires government health centres hand out free condoms and birth-control pills, benefiting tens of millions of the country’s poor who would not otherwise be able to afford or have access to them.
It also mandates that sex education be taught in schools and public health workers receive family-planning training.
Proponents have said the law will slow the country’s rapid population growth, cut poverty and reduce the number of mothers dying at child birth.
The Catholic Church had managed to stall the legislation for more than a decade, cowing legislators and presidents by threatening to turn the public against them.
Eighty percent of the country’s roughly 100m people are Catholic, and the church helped lead “people power” revolutions that toppled two corrupt presidents over the past 27 years.
Nevertheless, public opinion surveys have consistently shown a majority of Filipinos support the “Responsible Parenthood Act”.
Agencies
