COMMUNICATE:

Country: China

Birth Rate:

 This statistic shows the birth rate in China from 2000 to 2021. In 2021, about 7.52 children were
born per 1,000 people in China

Death Rate:

 In 2021, the mortality rate in China ranged at approximately 7.18 deaths per 1000 inhabitants.

Production Growth:

 The overall labor productivity was 146,380 yuan per person in 2021, up by 8.7 percent over the
previous year. By the end of 2021, the total number of national populations reached 1,412.60
million, an increase of 0.48 million over that at the end of 2020.

CREATE AND COLLABORATE:

1. Find news excerpts the roles of the Catholic Church in the Philippines, particularly in its role in
population growth and control. Paste these news excerpts in the space provided.

Answer:
The Catholic response to the population problem
A A Vicente
PMID: 12309377
Cite
Abstract
PIP: A survey of efforts led or sponsored by the Catholic church in response to the population
problem in the Philippines. These efforts stem from the Church's belief that population growth is
related to the overall picture of development, and that priority must go to social and economic
justice. The Catholic Church of the Philippines (to which 85% of the population belong) views it
as a problem basically involving care of people, and directs its efforts primarily at internal
human sexual control rather than external contraceptive control. Family Life Education began as
a program in the church in the 1960s. Efforts by priests, nuns, and lay leaders in Mindanao
eventually resulted in counseling in husband-wife relations, marriage commitment, human
sexuality, parent-child relations, and responsible parenthood, and to the creation of college
courses to prepare teachers in tackling sex education. A program offering natural family
planning was also started, initially for employees of a packing firm and later expanding
throughout the province. In 1975, the program was launched in Manila, and a year later had 3
family life centers. The ovulation (or Billings) method is offered -- an advantage to low income
people because it does not require purchase of a thermometer. Success of this method requires
 a sense of responsibility on the part of both husband and wife. Widespread international
interest in the ovulation method has led to formation of an International Federation for Family
Life Promotion, to which the Philippine Federation for Natural Family Planning has applied for
membership. The IFFLP is working with the WHO Human Reproduction Unit on 2 projects, part
of one of them (a field trial for evaluation) being conducted in Iligan City, Iloilo City, and Manila.
Among the concerns of the IFFLP-WHO collaboration is developing a standardized Natural
Family Planning curriculum or educational package.

2. Share your outputs in a group and then make a statement of your position to this role of the
catholic Church to reproductive health and population growth in the Philippines, based on the
news excerpts collected.

Answer: The Roman Catholic Church believes that using contraception is "intrinsically evil" in
itself, regardless of the consequences. Catholics are only permitted to use natural methods of
birth control. But the Church does not condemn things like the pill or condoms in themselves.

3. Report your position and output in class.

Answer: During the 333 years that the Philippines was a Spanish colony, it was run like a
theocracy by the Catholic church. It seems a three-century habit is hard to lose: the Church still
tends to behave as if it can dictate on the lives of every Filipino.

The latest example is its implacable opposition to a Reproductive Health (RH) bill that the
administration of President Benigno Aquino is trying to enact into law. The bill aims to provide
free information and health care services to Filipinos to enable them to plan their families to the
size they want. There is no compulsion, no limits to the number of children a family can have, no
population targets.

The Church will have none of it. Declaring that “contraception is corruption” and the RH bill
“anti-life”, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has ordered priests
throughout the nation to constantly inveigh against the reform. It has mobilised its allies in
Congress – politicians who profess to be devout Catholics – to scuttle the bill.

Actually, because of the Church’s pressure, Congress had been sitting on the RH bill for more
than a decade. But when he was elected in 2010, Aquino made reproductive health a priority
issue. He has since exerted so much political pressure that the bill has been pushed to the final
stages of discussion in Congress.

The reform is needed not only because the Philippines has one of the world’s fastest population
growth rates (slightly over two percent) but also because survey after survey has shown that
Filipinos themselves want such a law. While contraceptives are available in pharmacies, the poor
can’t afford them and don’t know how to properly use them. As a result, most Filipinos who
want to plan their families rely on hearsay and superstition, with priests constantly telling them
that large families are a “blessing.”

About 82 % of the country’s population of 100 million is Catholic, a figure that probably misleads
the Church into believing that they are sheep that need to be ordered around. But one Jesuit
scholar has noted that historically the Church only has clout and influence when its position
happens to be identical to that of most Filipinos. In this case it is not. Moreover, if the bishops
get their way, they will impose their beliefs on all Filipinos, including those who aren’t Catholic.
As D+C/E+Z went to press in mid-November, it was impossible to predict how this legislative
drama would unfold.

The Church’s own sense of politics and priorities can be sensed in a remark which one CBCP
official made to a journalist two years ago. The Church, he said in many words, would prefer to
see a criminal and corrupt person elected to office rather than someone who supports the
Reproductive Health bill.
 Communicate:

Food Insecurity in the Philippines

 Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 18) — Amid near-decade inflation highs, the
Philippines' ranking rose in the latest Global Food Security Index (GFSI)

 The 2018 report released Wednesday said the country placed 70th among 113 countries
assessed, with a score of 51.5 out of 100. The Philippines went up from last year's 79th, with a
score of 47.3, but it remains in the lower half of the index.

 A score of 100 points means there is ideal food security in the country.

 The index, from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), measures food security indicators under
three major factors: affordability, availability, and quality and safety.

 The report showed the Philippines fell short of the global average of food supply for 2018. It also
pointed out that food consumption takes up 42.2 percent of household expenses in the
Philippines, while global averages are at 29.5 percent.

 Challenges that pose a risk to food security in the country include lack of agricultural research
and development and corruption, it added.

 President Rodrigo Duterte on October 12 admitted the agriculture sector is the "weakest link" in
the economy, adding that he cannot solve the rice sufficiency problem in the Philippines during
 his term despite attempts to boost its supply. Duterte also said he had considered quitting in
August due to his failed attempts to address corruption in the country.

 Some 62.1% of Filipino households experienced moderate to severe food insecurity in 2020
amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, according to a Rapid Nutrition Assessment Survey (RNAS)
conducted by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute.
 The COVID-19 pandemic and vulnerability to natural disasters highlighted the urgency to further
boost the Philippines' food security. Said challenges caused bottlenecks in the country's supply
chain and sparked food shortages and hike in food prices due to transport and frequent
lockdowns.