President Rodrigo Duterte said observing social distancing, especially in urban areas in the Philippines would be impossible because there are “too many Filipinos.”
“Wear face mask, face shield for protection. Social distancing…it’s impossible, there are too many Filipinos in the urban areas,” Duterte said.
“Social distancing…when somebody goes out of the house, you can hardly have the space to move around. Just look at the bus, Quiapo…” he added.
Duterte said the overpopulation is due to the weak implementation of the government’s family planning program, including providing contraceptives which was not supported by the Catholic Church.
“Our population is 110 million. I hope we can do something about it. I won’t be around then, but we will have to pass it to the next generation,” Duterte said.
“I hope we can match the family with our gross domestic product. Dapat tamang tama lang ang tao na kaya pakainin [Our population should match the resources needed to feed people],” he added.
The Philippine population is expected to reach 110.8 million by the end of 2021, the Commission on Population and Development (PopCom) said.
PopCom said it could further grow due to unplanned pregnancies during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Duterte: Social distancing impossible because there are ‘too many Filipinos’
According to PopCom Executive Director Juan Antonio Perez III, this 2021 population projection is higher than the previous 109.4 million at the onset of 2020.
Perez noted that the University of the Philippines Population Institute (UPPI) also projected up to 750,000 “quarantine babies” would be born this year.
“However, since the GCQ (general community quarantine) is affecting only around one-third of the country, we believe about 250,000 might be added to our crude birth rate that would bring our population to 111.1 million,” Perez said.
Despite the projected increase in the population, Perez said the PopCom is expecting Filipino families “to grow smaller to only four to five members per family.”
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the population rate would decrease to 1.31 percent in 2021 from 1.68 percent in 2016, Perez said.
“We have seen a significant decline. This is because Filipinos are choosing to have smaller families, to have fewer children and therefore fertility is slowly declining,” he explained.