In the Philippines especially, only the most hardy traveller in development studies would venture along the path of population studies with anything but the greatest circumspection. Population studies in the country are prolific, and in 1972 Philippine population-influencing programmes took the first place (away from population-responsive agriculture) in external pre-investment and technical assistance funding. At the same time, however, there is also a notable concern in the country with the planning of regional development and it is not apparent yet that the two have been brought into very close association either with each other or with the renewed emphasis--another sign of the present times--on national planning for what are called the social aspects of development. It is, therefore, to this triad of issues in public policy studies that this November, 1974, tentative and speculative discussion, drawing upon a range of Asian materials, is addressed.