PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte signed Executive Order No. 71 on Thursday, December 20, which reverts the agency’s attachment to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) from the Department of Health.
The president likewise renamed the Commission on Population to the Commission on Population and Development (CPD).
The CPD is mandated to formulate and adopt coherent, integrated, and comprehensive long-term plans, programs, and recommendations on population and family planning as it relates to economic and social development.
It was an attached agency of Neda from 1991 until 2003 before its supervision was placed under the Department of Health.
“In order to strengthen the development and implementation by the PopCom of population-related plans, policies, programs, and projects in pursuit of socioeconomic development programs, there is a need to enhance its coordination with the NEDA,” the executive order states.
The Philippine Development Plan 2017-2022, the country’s development blueprint crafted by NEDA, has identified the integration of population and development as one of the key strategies to accelerate the country’s economic growth and improve the quality of Filipinos’ lives.