(Published in ENRICH magazine, 2022)
IN THE PHILIPPINES, the phrase "stand tall" should be taken with a figurative, and not literal, meaning.
That's because Filipinos still retain the dubious honor of being one of the world's shortest people in average population height, average female height and average male height. On average, Filipino men and women are a mere 156.41 cm (5 feet 1.57 inches) tall, according to data released in 2019 by NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC), a project linked to Imperial College London. This made Filipinos the fifth shortest people in the world based on NCD-RisC reckoning.
The same data also showed the average Filipino man with a height of 163.22 cm (5 feet 4.25 inches). That's as tall as Hollywood stars Michael J. Fox and Kevin Hart. The average Filipina is 149.60 cm (4 feet 10.89 inches) tall. Heightwise, that’s similar to former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, superstar Nora Aunor and the late Hollywood legend Judy Garland.
Filipinos are only marginally taller than citizens of Timor-Leste, which topped the shortest stature list of NCD-RisC. The average height of both males and females from Timor-Leste was 155.47 cm (5 feet 1.28 inches). The average Timorese man stands 159.79 cm (5 feet 2.90 inches) tall while the average woman gets to 151.15 cm (4 feet 11.50 inches).
On the other hand, the average Timorese woman (151.15 cm) is taller than the average Filipina (149.60 cm). This makes Filipinas the second shortest in the world behind the women of Guatemala, who have an average height of 149.38 cm (4 feet 10.81 inches).
NCD-RisC is a global network of health scientists that provides timely data on major risk factors for non-communicable diseases for all countries.
The question now is why are we still of such short stature when this problem has been with us for generations? There are short and easy answers to this question.
Basically, it boils down mostly to genetics (or biological factors) coupled with the right food and adequate nutrition (or socioeconomic factors), especially in childhood.
Some scientists estimate that genetics accounts for more than 60% of a person's height. This being the case, a relatively well-to-do Filipino couple whose height is above average will likely sire taller than average children. The reverse is also true.
The hereditary advantage conferred by tall parents who have enough money to regularly feed their children more protein (generally meat) than carbohydrates (rice) in their kids' growing years should see much taller children. Most Filipinos, however, are neither tall nor rich. The consequences of these realities are what we see daily on our streets: a sea of short and poor Filipinos.
Stunted, poor and malnourished
Height matters, and not only because of bragging rights. It turns out "height is a proxy indicator of how well the Philippines is doing as a society to reduce childhood poverty and improve access to nutrition," according to a report released in 2015 by Save the Children Philippines. It appears the Philippines is failing in this task.
"If the Philippines is to progress economically, we must not leave the poorest children behind," said the report with the title, "Sizing Up the Stunting and Malnutrition Problem in the Philippines".
World Atlas, an educational geography website online since 1996, publishes its own set of global stature statistics. In 2017, it estimated the average height of Filipinos at only 154.9 cm (5 feet 1.5 inches), a full 8.3 cm (3.3 inches) shorter than the estimate from NCD-RisC.
This made the Philippines the country with the third shortest population in the world. Instead of Timor-Leste, World Atlas said Bolivia had the world's shortest population. It placed the height of the average Bolivian at 151.1 cm (4 feet 11.5 inches).
What makes the estimate by World Atlas remarkable is that it attributed the short stature of Filipinos to "severe malnutrition problems ... especially prevalent in the event early age pregnancies, where the mother is not fully physically equipped for childbirth and childcare".
It noted the Department of Education (DepEd) admitting 1.8 million malnourished Filipino children are in danger from abnormalities such as stunting.
"The result is that the likelihood of this situation being repeated in the next generation is high. Although feeding programs have been launched, funds are not adequate enough," it reported.
It appears the DepEd estimate is off the mark. A report published by the Philippine Daily Inquirer in 2015 claimed 30% of all Filipino children under the age of five were stunted or short for their age. In numbers, this is an astonishing 3.6 million children, the ninth largest number of any country at the time.
"This is not a theoretical problem; this is a nutritional emergency," said the story.
At 63%, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) had the highest level of stunting among children in the entire country. Childhood stunting in Mindanao comes to 40%. This figure is equivalent to the average for all of sub-Saharan Africa consisting mostly of black African countries.
The report defined "stunted" as a child chronically malnourished during the first 1,000 days of its life, or from conception until the second birthday. This is the critical growth period for any child.
The World Health Organization (WHO) asserts stunting is the irreversible outcome of inadequate nutrition and repeated infections during the first 1,000 days of a child’s life.
The latest data about stunted Filipino children remains troubling and points to a neglect of the problem by both the national and local governments. The World Bank estimated 29% of Filipino children in 2019 age five and below were stunted.
It said the Philippines is still plagued by childhood stunting because of undernutrition, which it labeled "the silent pandemic". Stunting keeps most children in poverty for their entire lives while poverty creates the conditions leading to stunting.
In 2015, poverty meant 1.5 million Filipino children went through a day without a full meal. Some 2.7 million Filipino children missed a meal because their families don't have enough money for three meals a day. This situation has remained rampant.
In 2018, the Department of Health (DOH) estimated there were 4.2 million stunted Filipino children and more than 300,000 children under five years that are severely wasted, or thin for their height. Severely wasted children have at least nine to 12 times an increased risk of death.
The toll taken by malnutrition on Filipino children is gruesome and heartbreaking. UNICEF Philippines estimates 95 Filipino children die every day from malnutrition.
Another indignity: 27 out of 1,000 Filipino children do not live past their fifth birthday. And still another: a third of Filipino children are stunted, and stunting after two years of age can be permanent, irreversible -- and even fatal. We must put a stop to this!
Bad for the brain
Malnutrition and poverty are also bad for the brain. A poor and stunted Filipino child will unlikely achieve his full cognitive and intellectual potential.
WHO and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) both agree stunting affects the cognitive development of children, which can be seen in their paltry academic results at school.
Nine out of 10 Filipino children at age 10 cannot read or understand a simple story by the age of 10. This translates into a record high "learning poverty" of 90.5%. The inability of Filipino children to read by 10 years-old will also mean they face huge obstacles to learning math, science and a host of other more difficult subjects.
Learning poverty is defined by the World Bank as a child being unable to read and understand simple text by age 10. Also called "galloping illiteracy", learning poverty will later translate into economic poverty.
It has gotten far worst over the past two years due to the cancellation of face-to-face classes in the aftermath of COVID-19. Before COVID-19 struck in early 2020, learning poverty in the Philippines was lower at 69.5%.
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| Malnourished Filipino children |
First 1,000 days
During the presidential campaign 2016, candidates were asked to support the “First 1,000 Days Act,” a piece of legislation pending in Congress whose goal was to make reducing stunting and improving nutrition nationwide a presidential priority.
The man that won the presidential race, Rodrigo Duterte, did do something: he signed laws aiming to address the malnutrition problem. In the middle of his six-year long administration that bowed out on June 30, 2022, he signed Republic Act 11148 into law on November 29, 2018.
RA 11148, or the “Kalusugan at Nutrisyon ng Mag-Nanay Act," is more popularly known as the First 1,000 Days Law. It seeks to boost national and local health and nutrition programs through an integrated strategy for maternal, neonatal, child health and nutrition in the first 1,000 days of a child's life.
"This law will complement the much-awaited Universal Health Care Law to further boost the country’s health status on our way to make Filipinos the healthiest in Southeast Asia by 2022 and in Asia in 2040,” boasted DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III.
Over three years later or in June 2022, the national government announced its intent to borrow $178.1 million from the World Bank to further support RA 11148.
It said the loan will “increase the utilization of a package of nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions and improve key behaviors and practices known to reduce stunting in targeted local governments”. The project will be jointly implemented by the DOH and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
“It’s important that we focus on the health and nutrition of children starting in their mother's womb, especially because it has a big effect on their capacity to learn,” said Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, who co-authored RA 11148.
“We should make sure that our communities have enough participation and capability, together with the local government, in order to ensure the good health of Filipino children”.
RA 11148 complements Republic Act No. 11037 (or the Masustansyang Pagkain Para sa Batang Pilipino Act) signed into law on June 2018. This is a law "Institutionalizing a National Feeding Program for Undernourished Children in Public Day Care, Kindergarten and Elementary Schools to Combat Hunger and Undernutrition among Filipino Children and Appropriating Funds Therefor".
Both laws are part of the national government's bid to eliminate hunger and reduce all forms of malnutrition. They also intend to secure healthy lives, promote the well-being of Filipinos, and end hunger and food insecurity.
Up and down
Up until his death in 2020, Junrey Balawing from Sindangan, Zamboanga del Norte was the shortest living man in the Philippines and the world. He stood tall at 56.0 cm (22.0 inches), as verified by Guinness World Records in 2012.
He became the world's shortest non-mobile person after the death of Chandra Bahadur Dangi from Nepal in September 2015. Chandra measured 54.6 cm (21.5 inches). Balawing was only 27 at the time of his death in the City of Dapitan.
On the opposite end of the scale, the tallest indigenous Pinoy on record is Raul Dillo standing at an eye-popping 221 cm (7 feet 3 inches), a height he hit when he was only 17 years-old. Now 30 years-old, this giant used to play basketball in college and in the defunct Metropolitan Basketball Association but never shone despite his height advantage.
Dillo later played bit roles in a number of Filipino movies where he was predictably typecast as a giant. Asked about the downside to being gigantic in 2012, he replied: “Sa transportation ang hirap. Kung bus, okay pa. Pero tulad ng tricycle, mahirap.”
The tallest home-grown Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) player is center Edward Joseph "E. J." Feihl, whose ceiling was 215.9 cm (7 feet 1 inch). The second overall pick in the 1995 PBA draft, Feihl played for Ginebra San Miguel and six other teams until his retirement in 2007.
Feihl was born in Santa Barbara, Pangasinan to a Filipino mother and a German father. He’s 52 years-old.
The dearth of six-foot tall home-grown Filipino giants is a reason why the PBA is riddled with towering imports. In 2021, the PBA implemented a height limit of 198 cm (6 feet 6 inches) on imports to prevent the favorite Pinoy sport from being completely dominated by foreign skyscrapers.
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| Raul Dillo |
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