EDITORIAL - Selfish concerns

In a perfect world, humanity would keep multiplying, there would be enough food, jobs and resources for all, and we would all live happily ever after.

In our imperfect world, humanity keeps multiplying but there aren’t enough resources to keep up with the growth. Millions of people have no regular means of livelihood.

All studies bear out this state of affairs. So why is the government timid in its approach to the population problem? We all know the answer: national leaders are scared of the Roman Catholic Church, which frowns on any form of artificial contraception. No, our leaders are not scared of eternal damnation in the pits of hell. What they are scared of is the effect of the Church’s wrath on their political fortunes.

All of which simply means that development policies are held hostage to politicians’ selfish concerns. Any economist will tell you that when population growth is at par with or overtakes economic growth, you have a recipe for unabated poverty. The fruits of what little economic progress is achieved cannot trickle down to the masses. The countryside remains underdeveloped, fueling urban migration and creating urban blight. The government is hard-pressed to provide the most basic needs: food, shelter, education, health care.

In our case, peace and order pro-blems and political instability aggravate the situation, weakening the peso and discouraging investments. This means fewer jobs and an economic malaise that is proving difficult to cure. Poor women are taking matters into their own hands. In this predominantly Catholic country, an estimated 400,000 women reportedly undergo illegal abortions each year. Lack of access to family planning programs has to be one of the reasons for this.

Last week the Commission on Population reported that four babies are born in the country every minute – a sharp rise from three per minute in 2000. The country is now the 12th most populous in the world, with a population of 82 million, and the number continues to grow at an annual rate of 2.36 percent. The figure could still rise because a fifth of the population is in the most fertile age range of 15 to 24, the commission reported.

Unless the government has a viable income-generating program that can match that population boom, those figures should give any responsible national leader sleepless nights. This problem cannot be wished away or dismissed through political rhetoric.