BAGO CITY -- Social Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral yesterday said the goal of the government is to lower the Philippines population growth rate to 1.9 percent per annum by the year 2010.

The government is conducting multi-pronged activities in order to accomplish this, she said, pointing out that there are nearly 87 million Filipinos at present.

A census conducted in 2000 showed the Philippine population growth rate was 2.36 percent and in a census this year we are estimating that it will show that it has gone down to 2.0 percent per year, she said.

By the year 2010, we would have reached our population growth rate target of 1.9 percent, Cabral said.

The national government agencies have been tasked to give capacity training and building for natural forms of family planning, and local governments are tasked to provide other means of contraception to manage the population, she said.

We hope the next population census shows that our population growth rate is really going down, Cabral added

Population is intimately tied up to development, she said. "Our moves towards development and improvement of quality of life of the people will be hampered if our population growth rate continues at a very high rate", she said.

Dr. Nafis Sadik, UN Special Envoy for HIV and AIDS for Asia and the Pacific, said "all countries now accept that population is at the heart of development, and that achieving gender equality and universal reproductive health is vital to the reduction of poverty and the promotion of human well-being."

In the Philippines, Sadik said "the challenge remains to develop a strong and culturally-responsive population policy that supports the right of all women and men to make free, responsible and informed choices."

The population growth rate in the Philippines is still high compared to all the East Asian countries, she said.

FIGHT VS. AIDS

Meanwhile, Sadik said there are 40 million people with HIV-AIDS in the world but it is still at a low prevalence level in Asia and the Pacific.

She stressed the need for programs for seafarers and sex workers to reduce the threat of HIV-AIDS.

Sadik also stressed the importance of providing reproductive health education for adolescents .

Some people are opposed to this arguing that knowledge about this by the youth will make them sexually active, she said

But all the data in the world show that young people know everything about sex from the Internet and their colleagues, what needs to be given to them is proper information and education, Sadik said.

Cabral and Sadik were in this city for the 20th death anniversary of Rafael Salas, former executive director of the United Nations Fund for Population Activities.*CPG

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