Lagman chides Clinton for comment on Phl population

MANILA, Philippines –  The principal author of the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill chided former US President Bill Clinton yesterday for saying that Filipinos should consider their country’s huge population as “a positive.”

“Clinton’s passing statement may be typical of patronizing platitudes heaped by Americans on Third World countries,” House Minority Leader Edcel Lagman said.

He said Filipinos must be wary of taking such a statement hook, line and sinker as it is a careless commentary, not a sincere compliment.

“Those opposed to the RH bills cannot claim Clinton as an ally because he did not explain his sweeping generalization, although he admitted it is taking the Philippines longer than Singapore to realize its potential because Singapore is a smaller country,” he said.

Lagman said Singapore has a population of 4.8 million with the highest Human Development Index in Southeast Asia at rank number 27 in the world, while the Philippines is the 12th most populous country with a population of 94.3 million this year and ranks 97th in human development.

He pointed out that Clinton’s wife, US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, is an ardent advocate of family planning and reproductive health.

He quoted Secretary Clinton as telling a US congressional hearing in April 2009: “I have been in Asian countries where the denial of family planning consigns women to lives of oppression and hardship. We happen to think that family planning is an important part of women’s health.“

Clinton also quoted another statement made by his wife a year ago, while being interviewed in Malacañang: “I believe strongly that family planning is an important aspect of development. And I’ve seen this around the world, and I think empowering women to be able to make choices that are in the best interests of the children they already have and the family size that they desire increases educational outcomes, it increases income generation, it provides a much stronger basis for human development... Trying to empower and educate women so that they are able to make these decisions and they have access to family planning is not only positive for the woman and her family, but for the larger society.”

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. has vowed to subject the RH Bill to exhaustive plenary debates, and eventually, to a vote. He has said he could not predict the result of such a vote.