Too Many People in the Philippines

Are there now too many people in the Philippines? We are not talking about the expats or the vacationers but the actual number of Filipinos living on the 7000 islands. The biggest question is how many are there really in the population of the Philippines?

The official figures say there are around 100 million people, but the Philippines is notorious for bending figures and under reporting or over reporting to help the political elite. Assuming the official figures are near correct that makes the Philippines on track for a population and poverty problem for years and years to come.

The government expects the population to grow by 1.9% every year

Remember that many Filipinos for whatever reason do not have birth certificates or proper paperwork and in the eyes of the state they just do not exist. Most of the beggars and those in shanty towns would need to spend money on rice rather than a piece of paper giving them the name of their baby. In short the figures could be woefully wrong and inaccurate.

Several commentators have indicated that the true population of the Philippines could be around 120 million and some have said even higher. The truth is no one can say for sure as those in remote areas and living on the street are just not going to be accurately represented in any figures.

The government expects the population to grow by 1.9% every year and admits that it is not able to deal with the on growing population explosion. Add to this the country’s inability to really get behind birth control and the with the church not taking a reality pill, it seems the Philippines is destined to increase its poverty level year after year.

The government says that the average birth to each women is three, this seems remarkably low as the Filipinos believe i have large  families in order to supply a form of pension and care to the older family members. It is a shock when you drive through remote areas and see naked children playing on the street and adults sitting on the floor eating from trash.

With the population just growing and growing and a huge amount of the country’s GDP coming from OFWs it does appear if Asia gets a financial sneeze the Philippines will not be able to deal with it and the country and the people may slide again right to the bottom of the Asia countries in debt list.

Bishop Gilbert Garcera of the Diocese of Daet, the capital of  Camarines Norte, believes overpopulation has been advantageous to the  Philippines and to the world because it has increased the number of  overseas workers and migrants who could send remittances back home while  taking care of ageing people abroad and spreading the Christian faith.

Contrary to the aims of the reproductive health (RH) bill, Garcera said the huge Philippine population could be part of “God’s plan for Filipinos to be caregivers to ageing nations whose populations had become stagnant.”

He also said many Filipino women would make “good wives” for foreigners in countries that have low population growth.