Population, pollution from Marcos to Marcos

By Herbert Vego

ACCORDING to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), poverty incidence in the country has dropped to 22.4 percent from 23.7% in the past three years despite higher population growth.

The Commission on Population and Development (POPCOM) attributes this to the President’s plan of action aimed at addressing the population problem and improving the lives of millions of poor Filipinos.

The goal of Pres. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is to reduce poverty to a single-digit rate by the end of his term in 2028.

But this can only be achieved if the poor would raise just enough children to support.  Right now, there are 120 Filipinos in our archipelago, which is more than double the number during the administration of his father, the late President Ferdinand Marcos Sr.

I remember viewing a documentary on the state visit of the elder Marcos and First Lady Imelda to the White House on September 16, 1982.

“I came,” he said while looking at US President and First Lady Nancy, “in behalf of the 50 million Filipinos.”

Marcos Sr. seemed to insinuate that we had grown so big that we needed more substantial favors from the land of milk and honey, stressing that he had already lifted martial law in the Philippines.

Our population of 50 million was already scary in 1982. Squatter colonies in Metro Manila were already congested and struggling to survive; and the murky Pasig River, dotted with makeshift shanties, was making it impossible for fish to survive.

Thirty-three years later in 2015, following a national census by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the Philippine population hit 100,981,437.

The last PSA census in 2020 showed that our population had hit 109 million. Today, by PSA estimate, it’s a record-high of 120 million.

The urgency of population control gave birth to the Reproductive Health Law of 2012 (RA 10354), providing universal and free access to modern contraceptives in family planning.

Indeed, overpopulation engenders deepening poverty among the masses. Lack of employment opportunities has forced them to seek greener pastures abroad.

Overpopulation is also a direct cause of the pollution problem in the urban centers. Iloilo City, for example, grapples with the problem of garbage, which has already made a “mountain” out of the Calahunan dumpsite.

Anyway, kudos to Mayor Jerry P. Treñas, who has reportedly completed a successful negotiation with Metro Pacific Investments Corporation for the construction of a state-of-the-art Integrated Solid Waste Management Facility (ISWMF) that would convert waste into energy.

Do you agree, JonCab?

-oOo-

REGULATE THE POWER PLANTS, PLEASE…

IN a previous issue, this column wondered why the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) regulates prices imposed by the power-distribution utilities (DUs) – Meralco, MORE Power and the electric cooperatives – but not those of power-generating plants. As a result, power plants make enormous profits at the expense of end users.

Ironically, it’s the DUs, being the bill collectors, that bear the brunt of public anger.

To recap what I said, Aboitiz Equity Ventures (AEV) was the biggest earner among the power generators in 2023 with a net income of ₱17.3 billion in 2023, a 28 percent increase from ₱13.5 billion the previous year.

Here’s one more which bagged a windfall — ACEN Corp., which reported a net income of ₱6.56 from ₱4.12 billion previously.

That’s because the ERC does not regulate the generation charges. As stated in Section 6 of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) “the prices charged by a generation company shall not be subject to regulation by the ERC, except as otherwise provided in this Act.”

In other words, as long as our legislators do not amend that section of EPIRA, sorry na lang.