PIP: The fertility behavior of 100 urban working class Filipino couples from the Metro Manila area was examined by analyzing social variables, conjugal interaction, and contraceptive behavior. Husbands and wives were separately interviewed by male and female interviewers, respectively. The findings suggest that since high coital frequency occur among newly married couples, contraceptive methods independent of the sex act should be used during the early stage of marriage. Husbands should have greater participation in the couple's contraceptive practice, since there is a tendency to bear more children when the wife bears the brunt of contraceptive control. Family planning education should be impressed at an early age, especially among women. Since early marriage was also apparent among the Filipino couples (43% of husbands married between 21 and 25; 50% of wives between 14 and 20 years of age) and longer marriges tended to produce more children, early marriages should be discouraged by providing young men and women with opportunities for higher education and for generating income. Providing women with opportunities outside the home will modify their traditional role of mother and homemaker, which the findings show induced them to bear more children. Family planning motivational messages emphasizing the importance of accumulating more financial resources before starting a family should be directed to men, while the physical, economic and physiological strain of childbearing should be directed to women. Government and private agencies should cooperate in affecting a social change which would enable Filipinos, especially women, to redirect their attention to interests outside the home, thereby affecting their fertility.