Thursday, April 17, 2008 [ manilatimes.net ]
By Darwin G. Amojelar Reporter
The number of Filipinos ballooned to 88.57 million as of August last year, 15.8 percent higher than the 76.50 million in May 2000, government said.
President Gloria Arroyo issued the official population number on Wednesday under Proclamation 1489.
“The result of the 2007 Census of Population shows an annual growth rate of 2.04 percent from 2000 to 2007,” Augusto Santos, acting director general of the National Economic and Development Authority, told reporters.
He said the annual population increase for the past seven years was slightly higher than the government’s target of 1.95 percent up to 2010.
“In a sense, it was close to the target and lower than the previous decades,” Santos added.
The National Statistics Office conducted the census from August to September 2007, with August 1 as the reference period.
Santos said the Philippines’ population expanded from 1960 to 1970 at an annual rate of 3.01 percent. This slowed to 2.75 percent for the decade from 1970 to 1980, and further to 2.34 percent from 1990 to 2000.
Despite the increasing number of Filipinos, Santos said the government has no plans of changing its population policy.
President Arroyo has resisted use of contraceptives and other forms of family planning other than natural methods—a move applauded by the Roman Catholic Church but criticized by those who blame overpopulation for rampant poverty in the Philippines and recently for the food shortage. The Philippines is predominantly Catholic.
The Philippine population growth rate was much higher compared to Malaysia with an average 2.1-percent growth rate from 2001 to 2006; Vietnam, 1.4 percent from 2001 to 2006; Indonesia, 1.3 percent; and Thailand, 0.8 percent.
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