8/7/2019 Cracking Population

1/3

Cracking Population

Calling to mind the situation of the country, one would think that it is all because of poverty. Poverty

pulls every part of this countrys heart and soul down. Tracking what causes poverty, most will think

of overpopulation.

True enough, about four babies are born every minute in the Philippines alone, and its annual

growth rate is currently 2.3%. Its population is also four times its population about fifty years ago.

And, it is also one of the densest countries in terms of population in the whole world.

Overpopulation, like all other things has its pros and cons. The good thing about the increase in

population is the possible increase in production of goods, and also a stock of human ingenuity.

Even with these positive effects, its negatives overshadow them completely. An increase in

population will decline the standards of living in most families. Most will have problems when they

have more mouths to feed, more tuition fees to pay for, and more trash to dispose. In the end, these

problems will affect the future generations. Children will be seen selling flowers on the streets for

their food and education, and trash will be seen almost everywhere. Because of the increase, the

government would also have a hard time providing these families with health and educational

support.

No wonder poverty is crippling this country from economic growth, right?

Wrong! When one would think about it carefully, poverty does not stop if we find a way to control

population growth. The only way to stop the increase in population is to decrease poverty, not the

other way around. This can be seen in our current society. Some people believe, especially when they

experience poverty that having more children will help improve their economic situation in the

future. This will then lead to further increase in population. As Karl Marx reasoned, rapid

population growth is a consequence of economical and social inequalities, not its cause.

It is true that overpopulation cannot be stopped in the modern day Philippines, but poverty can be

decreased. The social and economical inequalities can be decreased by a significant amount if the

government will impose stricter policies in tax paying and prevent corruption. To us citizens, we

could do our part by simply being a good citizen, pay the right dues to the government, and be

properly informed about family planning. With these possible improvements, there will be better

health and educational support from the government. This will give more children the chance to have

their education, and will soon increase the standards of education of the schools, give way to

economic growth, and so on. This will then lead to a series of chain reactions that will control the

growth of the countrys population since poverty will be minimized.

At the end of the day, it must be pointed out that solely increasing or decreasing population growthdoes not spell the development of this country, or any country for that matter. There is also a need

for greater initiative, a more equal distribution of both wealth and power, and a more efficient use of

the resources as the remedy to the countrys underdevelopment. With these, modernization and

development will soon come, a rapid decline in fertility will then follow, and ultimately, the increase

in the standards of living will be evident.

Javeson Limchutick

8/7/2019 Cracking Population

2/3

Over population as I see it

When I think of the Philippines, I dont think of Boracay or the famous Imelda shoes. The disturbing

thought that the warm and friendly people of the Philippines, suffering from poverty comes first on

my mind. As of July 2006, the Philippines has a total population of 89,468,677 and is still growing at

around 1.8% each year. 40% of this is currently below poverty line, 16.9% are experiencing hunger

while 4.2% are experiencing severe hunger. These numbers might be alarming but it didnt surprise

me that almost half of our population is living a life below what is called acceptable. Why?

The answer is right in front of us. Everyday, while we pass through the streets of Metro Manila, we

see adults and children alike walking around, all dirty, either doing nothing or holding our their

palms asking for a few pesos of pity under the scorching heat of the sun. We see hungry Filipinos in

the trash, scraping for unwanted dirty if not spoiled food to ease the pain of their empty stomachs.

Whenever I watch the documentaries, the stories that I see are usually about child labor, severely

hungry Filipinos, unemployed Filipinos, OFWs, all saying that the Philippines is experiencing

extreme poverty. It is also a fact that the number of middle class Filipinos is declining fast because

they are all going to the poor level and they cant hold it much longer. Now, tell me, should I be

surprised with this number? I am alarmed with this number but to be surprised would only meanthat I am either ignorant or just plain dense. Where do these problems come from anyway? Why are

we in this state?

As a student, I cant answer that problem as accurately as I want to because I myself am wondering

why we got into this state. But what I do know, as someone who comes from what we call the class B,

is that the steady rising of the population doesnt come from us. I believe that we are all aware where

these alarming numbers come from, the ones who dont earn enough to support their families. If

their numbers continue increasing, they will become even poorer because their needs would continue

increasing while their income, if they have any, will stay the same. With this fact and the number of

skilled professionals and rich Filipinos who leave the country continue to increase. It is a chain rule,

in order to help the Class C and D sectors, the government would need support from the ones whocan help. If the ones who can help are gone, how can the government help increase the awareness of

the Class C and D sectors on what theyre doing wrong? If they are unaware, how can they help

themselves?

Overpopulation might not be the sole cause why this is happening but we can see that with each

population increase from the Class D or maybe even the C sector is another dependent without

anyone to depend on.

Probable disaster

According to the National Statistics Office, the Philippines population reflected a 2.36 percent

average annual growth rate and is expected that our population will reach 100 million in 14 years and

even double (from the current size) in the next 29 years. Will our overpopulation become more of a

problem than it already is?

One of the undervalued and still unaddressed problems that lie in the Philippines today is its

population. Due to our overpopulation, our country is struggling to provide enough job opportunities

with increasing number of young job applicants while simultaneously educating growing numbers of

children. Furthermore, with the now overwhelming increase rate of our population, we would

8/7/2019 Cracking Population

3/3

eventually have to deal with environmental side effects such as deforestation, soil erosion,

degradation of marine resources, and more. The Philippines is highly susceptible to environmental

damage because of the mountainous terrain, fragile soils, and climate.

Lets face facts: We are a third world nation that gets by mostly because of our OFWs and our natural

resources. Its no secret that our country has been suffering from an economic crisis. Between 1960

and 1980, the development of export crops played a very big part in the land extension that reduced

our forest area almost by half; all because there was a need to address our then growing populations

need for capital. Our country is also known for its particularly long coastline which used to support

about 25 percent of the population. However, the increase in our population has led to developments

and degradations which have grossly depleted our fisheries.

Evidently, rapid population growth seems to be at the center of it all. If these were the effects of our

population on our natural resources back then, how much worse will it be in the near future when

our population doubles?

In any case, the Philippines profuse natural resources are due to population growth and poverty

(which, actually, also stems from population growth). If our current population situation isnt

resolved soon, local ecological systems may eventually collapse and bring about disastrous effects.

We must also bear in mind that government policies can only do so much. Thus, instead of blindly

blaming the government for everything that goes wrong in our country, we, ourselves, must also

analyze what we are doing wrong and begin making conscious efforts in order to ensure that our

country still has a future.

Jayme Luis Pineda