Atienza urges GMA not to give in to pressure on population issue

Manila Mayor Lito Atienza urged President Arroyo yesterday not to give in to pressures from business leaders seeking a stringent family planning program, saying they have a "simplistic and distorted notion" about the country’s population.

Advocates of population control, Atienza said live on a false assumption that "reducing the population would enable the country to progress."

"One of the main reasons why we are in a fix right now is precisely because we have followed this wrong path in the past several decades," said the mayor, who is the chairman of Pro-Life Philippines, a Catholic-backed organization which promotes "positive values such as the proper valuing of life."

Business leaders earlier implored Mrs. Arroyo, a devout Catholic who strongly adheres to a pro-life policy, to adopt a more active method on population control, warning that the high birth rates in the country could further hurt the ailing economy.

The Philippines’ birth rate is estimated at 2.36 percent annually, or 1.7 million new births every year.

A predominantly Catholic country, the Philippines has a population currently estimated at 83.7 million. It has been ranked as the 12th most populated country in the world by the Washington-based Population Reference Bureau, a non-profit, non-advocacy organization that monitors population trends.

The country’s population is expected to grow to 118.4 million by 2025 and to 147.3 million by 2050.

Atienza issued his appeal to the President after he and his wife, Evelina, were conferred the Blessed Luigi and Maria Beltrame Quattrochi Award by Archbishop Paciano Aniceto, chairman of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines’ Episcopal Commission on Family Life at the San Carlos Seminary in Makati City.

The Atienzas were recognized for their "exemplary service" in advocating a pro-life stance.

To address the challenges of "poverty and a weak economy," Atienza said what the Philippine government needs to do is "promote positive values" such as responsible parenthood and prioritize programs on education, health and economic productivity.

"We also have to push for good and effective governance at all levels — at the executive department, the local level and even in the legislative," the mayor said.

He branded as "outdated and irrelevant" the position of family planning advocates that poverty plaguing many countries is caused by overpopulation.

Atienza pointed to studies cited in the Sept. 27, 2004 issue of Newsweek magazine entitled "Baby Bust," which also indicated that countries all over the world face negative economic growth as a result of shrinking populations.

The article called this emerging global phenomenon as "depopulation" and projected that while the "world’s population will continue to grow — from today’s 6.4 billion to around nine billion in 2050, "it will sharply decline after that."

"This only validates what we have long been saying: a country’s economic woes is not caused by population growth but by the dearth of development efforts and lack of opportunities for productivity, which are the primary responsibilities of the government," Atienza said.

"Conversely, the countries which rushed to curb the growth of their population now face a decline of their economies," he said.