Ramos looking to control population

Ramos looking to control population

MANILA (AFP): President Fidel Ramos called yesterday for a stepped up campaign to curb population growth in the Philippines, saying birth control was the only viable way to reduce poverty.

Ramos said the Philippine population of 70 million, officially estimated to be growing at least 2.1 percent annually, was projected to double within 30 years, and "preparations for this eventuality should be in place now."

He reaffirmed the government's policy of giving couples a fully informed choice to plan the size of their families, an approach bitterly opposed by the dominant Roman Catholic church as it involves the government's endorsement of artificial contraceptives.

In an veiled reference to the powerful Catholic church, Ramos said some people "may wish that we just undertake our population program on the sly" lest "the old quarrels and controversies resurface again."