Republic of the Philippines

Central Luzon State University

Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija

Government Action in the

Philippine Population in this
time of Global Pandemic
Research
By:
Judel Eria
Myra Maniquez
BASS 4

Abstract: The rapid growth populations are always one of the problems facing by the

Philippines that caused implications in the society. The study will tackle the government plans

and action to this problem especially in this time of pandemic and also the factors affecting the

current population.

Keywords: Fertility rate, mortality rate, migration, COVID19, government

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 Chapter I
Introduction
When Coronavirus disease (COVID19) have spread on every part of the world,
community quarantined have been implemented. Every individual are in danger to
socialize with others due to the fast spread of the said disease. According to the World
Health Organization, this virus is an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2
virus. Coughing, sneezing, speaking, singing, and breathing can spread the virus from
an infected person's mouth or nose in microscopic liquid particles. Larger respiratory
droplets and smaller aerosols are among the particles. If you are near someone who
has COVID-19, you can become infected by breathing in the virus or touching a
contaminated surface and then contacting your eyes, nose, or mouth. Indoors and in
crowded places, the virus is more easily disseminated. Community quarantine is the
only choice that had been made to stop or slow the spreading specially in Philippines.
But there are negative effects of this implementation such as; post-traumatic stress
symptoms, confusion, and anger were all documented in the majority of the studies
evaluated. Longer quarantine periods, infection fears, frustration, boredom, insufficient
supplies, insufficient knowledge, financial loss, and stigma were all stressors (Brooks,
Smith, et.al 2020). Due to this, other than the fact of dying caused by the COVID19,
there’s suicide cases happened because of the negative effects of the implementation.

The populations have changed a lot on every country that have been affected.
According to the Google news statistics, the total death cases worldwide as of
December 21, 2021 pump over 5,368,843 and in the said total cases, Philippines have
over 50,794. The pandemic's effects are far-reaching, even affecting our society's entire
structure. When key demographic patterns such as fertility, mortality, and migration are
combined, they cause changes in the overall structure of any population. An aging
population is worsened by declining fertility rates combined with rising mortality rates
that outpace migration rates. Each of these has been impacted by COVID-19, with
potentially serious consequences (Friedman & Parker, 2021).

This paper help to analyze the impact of the COVID19 pandemic in the population
status in the Philippine and the actions of the government to cope with the sudden
changes. How this action help to decrease the immense population or the serious death
rate happening in the country.

Statement of the Problem

The focus of this study is to answer the following questions:

1. What is the impact of the COVID19 pandemic to the Fertility rate in the
Philippines?

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 2. What is the impact of the COVID19 pandemic to the Mortality rate in the
Philippines?
3. What is the impact of the COVID19 pandemic to the Migration rate in the
Philippines?
4. What are the factors of prevalence of the increasing/decreasing population rate
in the Philippines?
5. What are the actions of the government to fix the sudden population changes in
the Philippines during COVID19 pandemic?

Objective of the Study

The study aims to show the actions and plans of the government and how they handle
the population rate most especially in this time of pandemic. Since Philippine was top 13
in the most populated country in the world this 2021 due to lack of family planning. Even
before pandemic Philippines didn’t missed on the most populated countries, that’s why it
became one of the problems of the government especially having scarcity and financial
support to the country. But it became unrecognizable when pandemic came.

Significance of the Study

The result of the study will be helpful to the government authorities who are in control to
monitor the population in the Philippines such as National Demographic and Health
Survey (NDHS) as a basis for a better plan and action. Also to the other researchers
who have same interest of topic which will benefit their studies to use this as a
groundwork.

Scope and Limitation

This study will be focusing on the population changes in the Philippines since COVID19
came. Also the researchers will study the government agencies that have the control on
the population rate.

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 Chapter II

Review of Related Literature

Based on the study by Muhammad Khalid Anser et al. (2020), entitled “The
impacts of COVID-19 measures on global environment and fertility rate: double
coincidence” which examined the impact of Covid-19 measures on the fertility rate and
environment. The results of the study by using the world aggregated data from 1980 to
2019 that due to citywide lockdown and campaigns, the chances of increasing fertility
rates during COVID-19 across countries was significantly by the poverty headcount ratio
in long-run and vulnerable employment in short-run. However, the impact of Covid-19
response seems to improve the likelihood of increasing fertility rate during pandemic.

The study of UNFPA entitled “The Impact of COVID-19 on Human Fertility in the
Asia-Pacific Region” shown that one of the dimensions of COVID-19 that have
significant potential or may impact the fertility rate is the high mortality which as
threatened to the couples and individuals to voluntarily suspends the births or reduced
sexual intercourse births to avoid the infections or transmissions of virus due to Covid-
19 or by observing the social distancing regulations. On the other hand, the case of
these study according to the analysis conducted by the Philippines Population Institute
(UPPI) and UNFPA that the indicators used was the sexual and reproductive health
(SRH) to model the impact of COVID-19 has estimated between mid-March and
December end of 2020 which have additional 2.07 million of women aged 15-49 years
old with not having met the need for family planning due to the government
implementation of an Enhanced Community Quarantine to limit the action of people and
to prevent the spread of virus (UNFPA, 2020). However, based on this study conducted
by Bietch et al. (2020) that the impacts on fertility trends will not seems within countries
due to the context of institutional and political will as much as strengthening the
healthcare systems and classify sexual and reproductive health services as an
essential, provide how to access the information of services and also hinders the
movement access of family planning where women felt greater control over their fertility
and will be reduced the likelihood of unintended pregnancies during pandemic. But
based to the study included Riley et al. (2020) and Stidham Hall et al. (2020), it will
harder to achieve in terms of marginalized groups that prone of impact of the restricted
access to family planning and unintended pregnancies (UNFPA, 2020).

According to the study made by Shimizutani S, Yamada E (2020) which

emphasized the impact of COVID-19 that will affect to the migration and remittances by
using the dataset of monthly household period have both before and after of the
outbreak of the pandemic in Tajikistan based on a variety of household welfare

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outcomes. Base on one of the findings and results which the households with migrants
in general are not all statistically significant during the impact of COVID-19. Based on
these columns include has some significant are less likely to fail in supplying enough
food for family members and children, paying for utilities in April to September and also,
less pessimistic during hard time. The migrant households significantly less incline to
answer that they are poor, but that the economic condition in living area and area’s
situation are bad and also, the financial situation is becoming worse. While the rest not
significant are the borrowing, they were more likely to avoid reducing healthcare
expenditure and that the economy of the area they live will further. These results may
impact to the migration during COVID-19 pandemic which expecting the migrant will
force to stay in the countries due to the strict border closures and travel bans, especially
in Tajikistan which affected of the stock of migrant and remittance deteriorate
(Shimizutani S and Yamada E 2020).

According to the findings of International Labour Organization (ILO) Brief (2020)

from the data of ASEAN migrant workers that due to the faces on the impact of COVID-
19, there are 89% of migrants still working to their destination because of the contract
from the agency/employer but 98% lack of access for social security services while the
other migrant return to their country home, lift their jobs (47%), end of contractual (24%)
and the employer give premature end the work of migrant (16% others) due to the
reduces economic activities, implementation of lockdown and travel restriction to
prevent the COVID-19 transmission. Therefore, the ASEAN government take on action
to the migrant workers returnee who affected in time of pandemic by providing social
security services such securing their food, housing for quarantine with good
accommodations, healthcare, and financial assistance for their family. Otherwise, the
migrant workers who still have working on their destination has facing the challenges
such lack of social security service while the challenges of returnee of their countries
was stable on given support by the government (ILO 2020).

According to the study by Takenaka, A et al. (2020) recommended policy actions

to the impact of COVID-19 on the migration which the government as host of countries
tend to ensures the need and calming the distressed of the migrant workers and their
families such ensuring their safety and welfare by providing relief programs and
satisfying beneficial, using diplomatic missions to ensure the welfare, benefits and
wages and also, assist the migrant stranded and provide necessary humanitarian, legal,
health and administrative support. The other recommendations included are such
facilitate reintegration of returned migrants, facilitate employment retention and
placement, and ensure flow of remittances (Takenaka, A et al. 2020).

According to the study by Gabrielle Kelly et al. (2021) using the tools of Residual
Mortality Rate (RMR) or residual deaths per 100,000 population as excess COVID-19
mortality rate in 2020 differ on excess mortality rate in average of 2015-2019 that there

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has both directly and indirectly comparable across the countries. Base on the result of
this study which the residual deaths out of 35 countries were negative and positive.
There are 18 countries (Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland,
Italy, Latvia, Norway, Slovakia, South Korea, Sweden, Taiwan, Croatia, Luxembourg,
New Zealand, Switzerland) has negative which is fewer excess residual deaths than
reported Covid-19 deaths while in positive that residual deaths are greater excess than
Covid-19 deaths in 17 countries (Austria, Bulgaria, Chile, Czechia, Finland, Germany,
Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom, United States,
Estonia, Iceland, Israel, Slovenia). Otherwise, the Covid-19 mortality rate is greater than
excess mortality rate because according to the discussions of these study, Covid-19 in
some countries are attributed to RMR and excess mortality rate while not attributed to
Covid-19 then RMR there are chance to assess the changes of deaths for other causes.
One of the considerable reported countries has smaller impact of pandemic or negative
RMR is Taiwan which reported that the number of dead is seven in 2020 because their
action was too early to prevent the spread of diseases from Covid-19 such tracking of
individual cases including early screening of flights from mainland China. While the
Poland and Bulgaria at the positive extreme reported with rates over double the next
highest RMR (Gabrielle Kelly et al. 2021).

Chapter III

Methodology

Introduction

This section discusses the procedures and strategies that will be used in this
study. It covers the discussion of the following: research design, data analysis,
theoretical and conceptual framework.

Research Design

This study used the descriptive research design to explain the action of
government on the population during Covid-19 pandemic and using the quantitative
data during Covid-19 pandemic to indicate the variables as bases to look the impact of
Covid-19 in the Philippine populations. Descriptive research design provides answer to
the questions what, when, who, where and how questions that are relevant to the
research problem. Descriptive research design also tries to gather information about the
current status of a phenomena and used to escribe ‘what exists’ in relation to variables
or status in an environment (Shuttleworth, 2008).

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Data Analysis

The researchers used the descriptive analysis for the gathered data and
exploring the data to appeared what researchers looking at the study which to identify
the significance of the variables during Covid-19 pandemic.

Conceptual Framework

COVID19 PANDEMIC GOVERNMENT ACTION

POPULATION

The Population is the dependent variable that have been impacted by the Covid-
19 pandemic and Government action as independent variable. This concept
emphasizes the impact of Covid-19 on population and how government action to this.

Theoretical Framework

The study will show the impact of Covid-19 on population and the government
action during pandemic. There are number of populations affected of Covid-19 which
impact to the fertility rate, mortality rate and migration rate that will consider to the
government to take on action that it might be seems to control the increases and
decreases the population during COVID-19 pandemic by implementing rules, preventive
plan to avoid the transmission of pandemic and limiting the action of the people. The
study will show the action of Government on the impact of pandemic to the population in
the Philippines and the effectivity of government during Covid-19 pandemic.

Chapter IV

Results, Interpretation and Discussion

This chapter includes the result of the descriptive analysis, discussion and interpretation
to understand further the meaning of the result.

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Result

The study shows that the government set rules to be followed to prevent
the spread of COVID19 because this is where the change in the fertility rate, migration
rate and mortality rate of the country started. Community quarantine is one of their rules
wherein people should be stay at home for their safety. Although, when the Covid-19
pandemic hit, the Commission on Population and Development (PopCom) predicted an
increase in births as more families stayed at home. Instead, there was a significant drop
in the number of births in 2020, with only 1,516,042 million registered, the lowest since
1986, when 1,493,995 births were recorded (Philippine News Agency, 2021). While on
the migration rate, Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) were deployed at the lowest
levels in over three decades in the Philippines in 2020, with a 75 percent decline in
deployment. Meanwhile, by the end of December 2020, the number of Returning
Overseas Filipinos had risen to approximately 800,000 people. That’s why as recognize
to the terrible impact of COVID-19 on migrants and their livelihoods, the Philippine
government should be applauded for their tremendous efforts to protect Filipinos all
over the world during this crisis. The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and the Department
of Labor and Employment's Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) worked
tirelessly to provide immediate assistance upon their arrival, including testing,
accommodation, and onward transportation to their homes throughout the Philippines,
while the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) was relentless in their efforts to repatriate
hundreds of thousands of stranded Filipinos in over one hundred countries around the
world (FOREWORD BY IOM PHILIPPINES CHIEF OF MISSION, 2021)

With the most affected of COVID19 in the changes of population, Mortality rate have
changes from time to time due to continuous death cases. In the Philippines, as of
January 3, 2022, the death case was 51,586. But government makes sure the
vaccination of everyone, in fact, according to the National COVID19 Vaccination
Dashboard as of January 2, 2022, the total doses administered was 108,853,491.

Interpretation of Data

The statistics below provide more specific to show the result of the study. Which include
the drop rate in Fertility during COVID19 pandemic and the increasing death cases.

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 Table 1

Source: The Global Graph (2021)

This table shows the sudden drop of the Fertility rate on 2020. Every year, women give
birth to an average of 2.806 children, and this fertility rate is predicted to decrease on
the next years, which is true when it pop to 2.504 on 2021. This result can lead to make
the family planning in the Philippines become stronger.

Table 2

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Source: Philippine Statistic Authority (June 2021)

COVID-19-related deaths amounted for 26.75 thousand deaths, or 8.8% of all deaths,

from January to June 2021. COVID-19 with virus detected and COVID-19 virus not

identified were both classified as one of the top ten causes of mortality. COVID-19,

which has a virus, was the country's fifth biggest cause of death in 2021, accounting for

17.16 thousand cases, or 5.7 percent of all deaths. Meanwhile, between January and

June 2021, deaths owing to COVID-19 with no virus identified amounted for 9.59

thousand, or 3.2 percent of all deaths, making it the ninth greatest cause of death.

Chapter 5

Conclusion and Recommendations

The following chapter concludes the overall outcome of the study that have established
by the researchers.

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Conclusion

Since this study is focus on the government actions during

pandemic to the changing population update and its impact. According to the result of
the study shows the strategies of the government to prevent this impact of COVID19
pandemic to the population in the Philippines wherein it change the fertility rate,
migration rate and mortality rate of the said country.

There are lots of rule that the government have been implementing since COVID19
pandemic, other measures include restricting people under a specific age range from
leaving their homes. Depending on the magnitude of the pandemic in their area, local
government units (LGUs)–municipalities and provinces–can take any of these
measures. The goal is to keep the number of infections and mortality low while limiting
the pandemic's economic impact. Effective border control, early lockdown
implementation, development of quarantine facilities, efficient public communication,
and monitoring efforts were the distinguishing aspects that assisted these LGUs in
limiting the pandemic's impact.

These are the restrictions and actions of the government that benefitted not only for the
safety of everyone but also help to fix the population problem of the country.

Recommendation

The further researchers must in-depth exploration and understanding about the impact
of Covid-19 on the population to sum up the factors and identify the problems for the
best results of research papers.

The government response takes more assured and strengthening the services for
population health and also truthfulness of information so that people more aware and
understand the situations especially in this time of pandemic.

References

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it transmitted?”. retrieved from: https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-
answers/item/coronavirus-disease-covid-19-how-is-it-transmitted

Brooks, Samantha K., Smith, Louise E., et.al (2020,February, 26). “The psychological impact of
quarantine and how to reduce it: rapid review of the evidence”. The Lancet. Vol. 395, Issue
10227, P912-920. retrieved from: https://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140-6736(20)30460-
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Friedman, Esther M. and Parker, Andrew M. (2021, April, 12). “An Early Look at the Impact of
the COVID-19 Pandemic on Demographic Trends”. The RAND Blog. retrieved from:
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International Labour Organization (ILO) Brief, (3 June 2021). Experiences of ASEAN migrant
workers during COVID-19: Rights at work, migration and quarantine during the pandemic, and
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Muhammad Khalid Anser et al. (11 July, 2020). The impacts of COVID-19 measures on global
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Shimizutani S and Yamada E, (2020). Resilience against the pandemic: The impact of COVID-
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Aiko Kikkawa Takenaka et al. (August, 2020). COVID-19 Impact on International Migration,
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UNFPA Asia-Pacific Regional Office (APRO), (January, 2021). The Impact of COVID-19 on
Human Fertility in the Asia-Pacific Region. UNFPA.

Gabrielle Kelly et al. (2021). Covid-19, non-Covid-19 and excess mortality rates not comparable
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Martyn Shuttleworth (Sep 26, 2008). Descriptive Research Design. Retrieved from
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Philippine News Agency ( October 10, 2021), “PH birth rate drop amid pandemic lowest in 34
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IOM PHILIPPINES CHIEF OF MISSION (July 13, 2021), “COVID-19 Impact Assessment on
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https://reliefweb.int/report/philippines/covid-19-impact-assessment-returned-overseas-filipino-
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