The 100 millionth Filipino baby — and the 99 other children born on the same day — have celebrated their fifth birthdays this weekend.
Since this milestone date — July 27, 2014 — the nation’s maternity wards have remained busy, with more than eight million new Filipinos welcomed into the world.
Yesterday (July 27, 2019), the executive director of the Commission on Population (PopCom) Juan Antonio Perez III marked the birthday of Chonalynn Sentino and the other 99 sharing the same big day.
He said that the birth of Sentino remained “a challenge to the government as they are expected to demand an increase of the family’s capacity to provide for the needs of their children”.
“Half a decade ago, we welcomed these babies in our society. Everyone must do their part in the achievement of these children’s total well-being,” he said in a statement.
According to the the 2015 Census of Population, next available after the birth of the 100, there were 100,900,000 Filipinos.
Since then, this figure has increased by about 1.7 per cent annually.
According to a ‘Population Clock’ on the PopCom website, the Philippine population stood at about 108,098,000 towards the end of today.
“So the annual increase in five years is about 1.6 million to 1.7 million per year. Countries in general will have stable population size with growth of one per cent,” he added.
The official urged everyone to “work together to ensure that their basic rights on social services are provided, for them to be productive members of the society”.
He cautioned that the number of Filipinos had been consistently growing since the 1970s and the population issue that the country is facing “serves as an institutional reality check which calls for the involvement of everyone in the society”.
In an article on last year’s fourth birthday of the 100 millionth Filipino, we reported that teenage pregnancy remained worryingly high in the Philippines, with nine per cent of women aged 15-19 already becoming mothers.
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