Palace OKs new 5-year population action plan

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang has approved a five-year population and development plan that will guide national and local programs to address the country’s “remaining population challenges,” according to a memorandum circular signed Tuesday.

The Philippine Population and Development Plan of Action (PPD-PoA), which will be implemented from 2023 to 2028, directs all national government agencies and local government to establish population development programs and services, according to memorandum circular 40 signed by Executive Secretary Lucan Bersamin.

The PPD-PoA is the “overall blueprint” for various agencies to collaborate on initiatives that “optimize demographic opportunities and address remaining population challenges” to fulfill the government’s long-term economic and development goals.

The Commission on Population and Development (CPD), formerly known as the Commission on Population (POPCOM), crafted the PPD-PoA 2023-2028 to serve as the government’s main strategy in pursuing the localization of programs in population development, responsible family planning and adolescent health.  

The CPD’s devolution transition plan from 2022 to 2024 mentioned the PPD-PoA as the primary policy guidelines that will “strengthen the capacity and implementing mechanisms of all concerned LGUs” when it comes to offering population and development services. 

“With the continuing importance of effectively managing and developing the population to facilitate local socioeconomic development at the household up to the local level, all LGUs should be able to create a dedicated office to plan, coordinate, implement and evaluate POPDEV services,” the CPD wrote.

According to memorandum circular 40, the CPD is the lead agency in charge of creating long-term plans to implement the PPD-PoA. 

Among others, the CPD has been tasked to collaborate with other government agencies, monitor the implementation of the program and submit annual reports about the program to the Office of the President.

The CPD is also responsible for the conduct of comprehensive population and development reearch in the country and for the raising of awareness on the impact of population dynamics on socioeconomic development.

Surveys by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) and the University of the Philippines Population Insstitute indicate that teenage pregnancies have been decreasing as of 2022. 

Based on the PSA survey, girls aged 15 to 19 who became pregnant went down from 8.5% in 2017 to 5.4% in 2022. 

Teenage pregnancies are estimated to cost a young mother at least P83,000 a year, according to the United Nations Population Fund’s analysis of PSA data.