A girl born early yesterday has officially pushed the population of the Philippines to 100 million, highlighting the challenge of providing for more people in the impoverished nation.
The newborn, Jennalyn Sentino, was one of 100 babies born in state hospitals all over the archipelago who received the symbolic designation of “100,000,000th baby.”
“This is both an opportunity and a challenge ... an opportunity we should take advantage of and a challenge we recognize,” said Juan Antonio Perez, executive director of the Philippine Commission on Population.
Photo: Reuters
While a growing population means a larger workforce, it also means more dependents in a country where about 25 percent of people live in poverty, he said.
He said the Philippines had to find a way to bring services to the poorest families, while also lowering the average number of children that fertile women will bear in their lifetimes.
“We’d like to push the fertility rate down to two children per [woman’s] lifetime,” from the current level of three per woman on average, he said.
While celebrating the birth of the babies with cake and gifts of clothing and blankets, the government will also monitor each of the designated 100 children over the coming years to see if they are receiving the required health services, Perez added.
Jennalyn’s father, 45-year-old van driver Clemente Sentino, said he was grateful for government aid, but expressed confidence that he could support his child and partner.
He and the child’s mother, Dailin Cabigayan, 27, are not yet married.
“She just happened to get pregnant, but we do have plans to get married,” he told reporters. “I make just enough to get by, but at least my job pays regularly. We will find a way to make it fit.”
Efforts to control the Philippines’ population growth have long been hampered by the influence of the Roman Catholic Church, which counts about 80 percent of Filipinos as followers and which disapproves of all forms of artificial birth control.
It was only in April that the government finally overcame over a decade of church opposition to implement a reproductive health law providing the poor with birth-control services.
Perez said with the law’s implementation, about 2 million to 3 million women who previously did not have access to family planning now do.
Meanwhile, Father Melvin Castro, head of the commission on family and life of the country’s Catholic bishops, was quoted by a church-run radio station as praising the ballooning population, as there would be more “young workers” to power the economy.
Philippine President Benigno Aquino III spokesman Herminio Coloma said the milestone showed the importance of making “the right investments in people.”
The government has prepared for this by spending more on “human development,” particularly education, he told reporters.
Meanwhile, Klaus Beck, the country representative of the UN Population Fund, endorsed the Philippines’ new focus on family planning in a statement issued to coincide with the population landmark.
“Governments that are serious about eradicating poverty should also be serious about providing the services, supplies, information that women, men and young people need to exercise their reproductive rights,” he said.
Taiwan aims to open 18 representative offices and seven Taiwan Tourism Information Centers worldwide by next year to attract international visitors, the Tourism Administration said on Saturday. The agency has so far opened three representative offices abroad this year and would open two more before the end of the year, it said. It has also already opened information centers in Jakarta, Mumbai and Paris, and is to open one in Vancouver next month and in Manila in December, it said. Next year, it would also open offices in Amsterdam, Dubai and Sydney, it added. While the Cabinet did not mention international tourists in its
EYES AT SEA: Many marine enthusiasts have expressed interest in volunteering for coastal patrols, which would help identify stowaways and illegal fishing, the CGA said Six thousand coastal patrol volunteers are to be recruited for 159 inspection offices to enhance the nation’s response to “gray zone” conflicts, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) sources said yesterday. Volunteer teams would be established to increase the resilience of coastal defense systems in the wake of two unlawful entries attempted by Chinese over the past three months, Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. A former Chinese navy captain drove a motorboat into the Tamsui River (淡水河) in Taipei on the eve of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, while another Chinese man sailed in a rubber boat into the Houkeng
NEXT LEVEL: The defense ministry confirmed that a video released last month featured personnel piloting new FPV drone systems being developed by the Armaments Bureau Taipei and Washington are pushing for their drone companies to work together to establish a China-free supply chain, the Financial Times reported on Friday. A delegation of high-level executives and US government officials were yesterday to arrive in Taipei to discuss with their Taiwanese counterparts collaboration on drone technology procurement and development, the report said. The executives represent 26 US manufacturers of drone and counter-drone systems, while the officials are from the US Department of Commerce and the US Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit, along with Dev Shenoy, principal director for microelectronics in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense
‘ANONYMOUS 64’: A national security official said that it is an attempt by China to increase domestic anti-Taiwanese sentiment and inflame cross-strait tensions The Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM) yesterday denied accusations by China that it had undermined regional security by carrying out cyberattacks against targets in China, adding instead that Beijing was responsible for raising tensions and undermining regional peace. The Chinese Ministry of State Security on WeChat accused a hacker group called “Anonymous 64” of targeting China, Hong Kong and Macau starting earlier this year through frequent cyberattacks. The group carried out cyberattacks to seize control of Web sites, outdoor electronic billboards and video-on-demand platforms in China, Hong Kong and Macau, it said, adding the hackers’