PH, world’s 3rd biggest baby producer; Duterte cites need for family planning
AMMAN, Jordan — President Duterte reiterated that he is for family planning, citing the rapid growth of the Philippine population which is nearing the 110million mark.
Duterte made the statement as he tried to convince more Jordanian businessmen to invest in the country in a forum here Wednesday.
In a speech, Dutere said that the Philippines is ready to accept foreign investors to cater to the needs of the growing Filipino population.
Duterte said that it is now hard to control the growth of the population, even joking that the Philippines is now one of the largest producers of babies in the world.
“We have a lot of Filipino in good numbers and they are here to make a living because things are pretty hard up,” he said.
“And Philippines is somewhat the third largest producer of babies everywhere. We are hitting the 110 million Filipinos and it keeps growing everyday,” he added.
“We need the money to finance the huge population – education, medical care, everything,” he continued.
The President then attributed the rising number of Filipinos to the opposition of the Roman Catholic Church to artificial family planning methods.
“Because of some religious disputes, family planning, in whatever form is always taboo to --- sorry to say this in public – by the Roman Catholic Church,” Duterte said.
“And so for other religious people, we cannot really control them because it would be at the expense of the religious hierarchy,” he added.
The World Population Review placed the Philippines at the 13th spot with a population of 106,810,164. It projected that the country will have a population of 125,372,282 in 2030, citing a 1.52percent growth rate.
China is at the top spot with 1,416,073,034, followed by India with 1,356,819,071, and the United States with 327,195,966.
Indonesia, meanwhile, is the only country from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the top 10. It is ranked fourth with a population of 267,319,751.
In January last year, Duterte signed Executive Order (EO) no. 12 which provides funds and support for modern family planning to make it available to the poor. Based on the four-page document, local governments are tasked to do a comprehensive review of couples and individuals in need of family planning services.
In July this year, Duterte hit the seemingly heavy influence of the Church on the government’s decision on what can be good for the people, particularly on modern family planning.
“I read somebody said that we have to implement the family planning. Alam mo sa totoo lang (You know, the fact is), the family planning, with due respect, ayaw ko makipag-away (I do not want to quarrel), it has something to do with the objection of religions, not all,” he had said.
“And that is why one of my reasons why I do not like itong (this) — the creeping influence of faith is that they sometimes run counter to what government believes to be good for the people. At least in this temporal life, okay na ‘yan sa (that would be fine in) heaven,” he added.