Approaching 150 million

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor NANETTE L. GUADALQUIVER Busines Editor CEDELF P. TUPAS Sports Editor (On Leave) RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

Overpopulation is defined as the situation when the population of an area cannot be maintained without rapidly depleting non-renewable resources and without degrading the capacity of the environment to support the population.  Based on this definition, the Philippines is one country that is already overpopulated.  All one has to do is take a look at the living conditions of the majority of the people in this country, especially the millions who live below the poverty line: oversized families that do not have proper housing and whose members are usually either undernourished or malnourished, living with limited access to potable water, sanitation, healthcare, and quality education.

The projection of Venture Strategies for Health Development, a nonprofit organization based in Berkeley, California, that even if an implausible two-child policy is enforced by 2010, the Philippine population is still expected to reach 150 million because of the lack of information and access to family planning services should be taken as a warning for the possible repercussions of a state policy that is subservient to the church when it comes to the issue of population control.

If this government is convinced that allowing this country’s population to grow at an uncontrolled rate by refusing to provide Filipino families with options and choices other than natural family planning is in the best interests of the Filipino people, then it must work overtime in laying down the infrastructure and support services necessary for a country with a population of 150 million.

A government that can hardly provide its current population of 89 million with the minimum living conditions that can be considered safe and humane must either reevaluate its position when it comes to population control or do much more that it is currently doing to assure its people that this country’s resources, infrastructure, and support services will be able to handle a population of 150 million in the unavoidable future if the current trend in population growth rates continues.*