100 million

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor CHERYL CRUZ Desk Editor NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

Last Sunday a baby girl born at the Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital became one of the 100 babies born in state hospitals all over the archipelago to receive the symbolic designation as the country’s “100,000,000th baby”.

The child, named Chonalyn, is the first-born of a 27-year-old domestic helper and the second of her 45-year-old partner, a van driver.

A population of 100 million is a big number for any country and that milestone becomes even more significant for a country where an estimated 40 million of that 100 million live below the poverty line.

Executive director Juan Antonio Perez of the Commission on Population (PopCom) sees the 100-million mark as both an opportunity we should take advantage of and a challenge we should recognize. A growing population means a larger workforce but a country with so many people living below the poverty line has to find a way to bring basic services to the poorest families and provide equal opportunities to allow each citizen to uplift their lives.

The PopCom would like to push the fertility rate from 3 children per woman to 2 in her lifetime but efforts to control it have been met with strong resistance by an influential Catholic Church that staunchly opposes all forms of artificial birth control.

Our population has breached 100 million yet the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012 that took 13 long years to be enacted due to numerous roadblocks in the form of various appeals and petitions, has yet to be implemented.

A population of 100 million wouldn’t be worrying if the Philippines were a first world country. However, a third world country masquerading as a first world country cannot afford to delay the implementation of a law that has already been declared mostly constitutional by its own Supreme Court.
What are we waiting for?*