Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 17) — Malacañang has approved and adopted the Philippine Population and Development Plan of Action (PDP) for 2023 to 2028 that aims to address the country’s population challenges.
Memorandum Circular No. 40 that was inked by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin on Tuesday and uploaded in the Official Gazette on Friday directed government agencies to implement the plan crafted by the Commission on Population and Development (CPD), formerly known as the Commission on Population (POPCOM).
The memo said it will serve as the “overall blueprint for the inter-agency collaboration to optimize demographic opportunities and address the remaining population challenges in order to accelerate the attainment of the Administration’s socioeconomic development agenda.” It also noted the role of the country’s demographic condition in increasing the capacity to “bring back the country to high-growth trajectory.”
The CPD will coordinate with government agencies and institutions to ensure that goals and objectives of the plan are attained in a whole-of-government approach, it added.
A Philippines Statistics Authority data released in 2022 showed the country’s total population was at 109,035,343.
POPCOM-NCR, or now CPD, said on Nov. 15, 2022 that the total fertility rate (TFR) of Filipino women has fallen to 1.9 children, from 2.7 in 2017, the sharpest decline ever recorded.
“The Philippines was able to register recent population statistics unheard of in years, with fertility numbers plummeting to less than two offspring per woman,” the agency said in a Facebook post.
READ: POPCOM: Fertility rate of Filipino women falls to less than 2 kids
https://www.cnnphilippines.com/news/2022/11/15/total-fertility-rate-filipino-women-sharp-decline.html
As a result of declining fertility, the population growth rate has been steadily slowing down, and population structures are changing, Undersecretary Lisa Grace Bersales, executive director of CPD, said in April.
“A wider window of opportunity for maximizing the demographic dividend has now opened up as a result,” she said, adding that transformative education and lifelong learning are essential to enhance the nation’s capacity for economic growth through the production of skilled labor.
