More with less means deeper poverty

World Bank and other foreign creditors need not tell us that the Philippine population is growing at an alarming rate. Statistics and more faces are there to look at and tell us that this is happening.

Latest data from the National Statistics Office estimates that the country’s population this year would reach 80 million, up from 76 million just two years ago, and from 68 million in 1995.

At current growth rates, the Philippine population would hit 85 million by 2005, growing at an average rate of 2.1 percent. This is way ahead of the average 1.4 percent growth in per capita gross national product (GNP).

This simply means that there will be more people to feed with less available food. From a quality-of-life point of view, this translates to that dreadfully unpalatable phrase: deeper poverty.

Population and poverty

The Philippines continues to be one of the world’s favorite showcases on how population affects poverty. Even as early as the 1970s, we had been under the scrutiny of international consultants and studies pinpointing the obvious: unless the Philippines comes to grips with its haywire coupling statistics, there will be little or no respite from paucity.

Martial Law three decades ago provided some modest gains towards curbing population growth. Those could be regarded as the golden years of the now-neutered Population Commission. With People Power in the 80s and the resulting ascendancy of the Catholic Church and "new" democracy, condoms and birth control once again became taboo words.

The Catholic Church is seen as the main obstructionist of the avowed government program to address rapid population expansion. Many political leaders who value their elective positions choose to play dumb. Those who do not, as one former popular Health department secretary learned, are chastised by pontifications of the Church and its self-righteous lay leaders.

Even international organizations concerned by the world’s ballooning population have learned that the Philippine Catholic Church is a worthy opponent not to be underestimated. In fact, not even former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell could enamor our usually celebrity-hungry populace to heed her safe sex message during a UN-sponsored tour in 1999.

It also certainly doesn’t help when local and national leaders – unwilling to lose the Church’s political support – exploit the issue and therefore contribute to further exacerbating the population problem.

More offspring to feed to poverty

The proof of poverty is everywhere. Children knocking on car windows for coins; shanties spilling out of street pavements; buzzing flies on food carts pulled by shabbily dressed vendors. These are pictures that are so familiar that we have forgotten their obscenity and foul smell.

Last February, foreign donors and creditors warned the country’s senior finance and government officials that poverty alleviation – the theme of the conference and the supposed centerpiece of the Macapagal administration’s economic agenda – would be difficult to achieve without controlling population growth.

Without actually resolving anything substantial in terms of policy, the World Bank gave the government $20 million to kick-start a more aggressive population control program. To focus on maternal health and population management, this multilateral-funded initiative is set for implementation starting 2004 or 2005. This would be the first concrete program in several decades since the government suspended its population control agenda after the Church-propped EDSA uprising.

Just wondering why the World Bank program have so start between 2004 and 2005, and not earlier? It looks like the World Bank too is choosing not to agitate the all-powerful Philippine Roman Catholic Church before the 2004 presidential elections. After all, Catholics still account for three-quarters of the voting population.

Other foreign groups strongly supporting population control in other countries also take a roundabout approach in developing and conducting population control program in the Philippines. For example, it is interesting to note the changes in terminologies and program titles. To illustrate the generally used "Family planning" is often substituted with terms like "reproductive health," "maternal and child care," and "booth delivery."

Even Filipino women, who are seen as the most affected sector, seem to be unsure. Compliance to the church dogma is reinforced by the social belief that the man in the family has the last say. If the husband does not have a strong view of the number of offspring, the wife will rarely seek birth control measures.

Programs on the sly

Currently, the Arroyo administration is implementing a low-profile program for responsible parenthood and prevention of teenage pregnancies.

The program is so hush hush that practically very few even from its target market know about it. This cloak of accrecy was also reportedly noticed when the Department of Health banned a drug called Postinor in December 2001, quietly reversing the approval for its sale and distribution in the Philippine market which was given in April 2000.

Postinor is an emergency contracepting drug that stops fertilized ovum from being implanted in the walls of the uterus. The Church said the sinful pill is abortive and the government quickly gave in.

Church should foot the bill

The silence of the government on the issue of population management and control is deafening. It puts into question its resolve to rid the country of indigence.

The Church, on the other hand, can not just turn a blind eye on the fact that more and more people fall into the precipice of poverty because there are simply not enough resources to feed, clothe, and house them.

However, since it cannot budge from its position against population control, the least the Church can do is to relinquish part of its material wealth and feed the too many little Filipinos being brought into a world that offers less and less security.

In other words, don’t just say, "No birth control." But also say, "We will feed them." The Church, with its wealth, should share the burden of the natural consequence of uncontrolled procreation.

Should you wish to share any insights, write me at Link Edge, 4th Floor, 156 Valero Street, Salcedo Village, 1227 Makati City. Or e-mail me at [email protected]. If you wish to view the previous columns you may also visit my website at http://bizlinks.linkedge.biz.