• RICHARD T. CABALLERO JR.
During the World Population Day Press Conference facilitated by the Commission on Population and Development – Negros Island Region (CPD-NIR) yesterday, the commission reported a decrease of the region’s population growth rate (PGR) from 1.14 in 2020 to 0.72 in 2024.
The reported PGR is lower than the national growth rate of 0.80. Atty. Bruce Ragas, CPD-NIR Acting Regional Director, suggested that the recent pandemic was one of the major factors of the declined growth rate, as based on their report, it has affected the decision making of couples in terms of fertility.
However, despite the reported decline, NIR has the highest PGR in all of the Visayas, with a population size of more than 4.9 million, which is the second largest population next to Region VII. The NIR population size ranks 10th at the national level, according to the latest records released by the Philippine Statistics Authority.
Following the reported population status, CPD-NIR urged government actors to strengthen the implementation of reproductive health laws to address the perennial population issues and to achieve regional and societal goals.
Among the recommendations given were to strengthen the implementation of the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Law of 2012 and the full-scale implementation of RA 9994, also known as the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010.
The commission also suggests the adoption of the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Bill into a law to be implemented at a national level.
The publication of the current demographic status will serve as a basis for the local chief executives for their development planning and policy-making initiatives, said Ragas.
Moreover, Bacolod City being the only Highly Urbanized City in the region, recorded a total population of 624,787 along with the PGR of 0.94, while Negros Occidental, excluding Bacolod, reported more than 2.6 million total population, present data showed.
CPD-NIR INTERIM OFFICE
Following the population growth report, CPD-NIR said that they successfully established their interim office in April 2025 and are ready to provide technical assistance and capacity-building to partners in advancing population programs.
The commission is currently holding shared office inside the Negros Occidental Provincial Capitol but is eyeing to establish a permanent regional office either at Dumaguete or Bais City in Negros Oriental.
Despite facing problems with resources and the absence of budget allocations for the year 2025, the commission is working closely with the central office and regions for the establishment of their regional office.
“Regions 6 and 7 have been sharing resources for the establishment of the CPD-NIR regional office. But we are looking forward to some of the government agencies having their own budget coming from that national government starting in the year 2026, including us in CPD-NIR, and we are hoping that we will be included in that,” said Ragas in an interview.*
