Cut down our population or corrupt pols?

Last week Ayala’s big boss Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala read a statement for an in behalf of some 50 Ramon Magsaysay Awardees during the two-day forum of leaders from 24 countries at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) organized by Ramon Magsaysay Awards Foundation where the participants generally agreed that the estimated one billion Asians living on less than US$2 a day required special attention.

The Ramon Magsaysay Awardees identified poverty and inequality, environmental decline and social conflict as among the challenges facing the region. These issues can be addressed by the sharing of knowledge, experiences and best practices and the emergence of a new kind of leadership and partnerships that promotes development with accountability, transparency with ethical and efficient governance. Non-government organizations must work with the people and the local government to effect changes that only good governance can bring. But do we have good governance here?

I searched this statement thoroughly for the most important keyword “population control”, which was never mentioned at all. Yet a week ago, we heard our old school teacher Prof. Ernesto Pernia, now a Professor on Economics at the University of the Philippines (UP) and a Board of Trustee at the University of San Carlos (USC) blame the Catholic Church doctrines that caused our runaway population and espoused population control. Who is right on this issue or who is wrong? Who’s really at fault here?

Yesterday, our good friend, Fr. Carmelo Diola said Holy Mass before the Sons of David at the Cebu Country Club (CCC) and told us that he was in a USC forum last Thursday about Reproductive Health where he said that the bill on Reproductive Health was the “Trojan Horse” that would usher in the use of artificial contraception, fearing that those who use artificial means would resort to abortion when these contraceptives start to fail.

Fr. Diola also debunked the paper about the growth rate in the Philippines which our legislators pegged at 2.36%, yet the United Nations had a very much lower rate. He added that the National Statistics Office projected a growth rate of 1.99% which is must lower than what our congressmen and women are trying to project in order to have the bill passed. In order to get an unbiased report about the Philippines growth rate, Fr. Diola looked into the website of the US Central Intelligence Agency and saw that our growth rate was at 1.72%. Fr. Diola asks, “Which of the two, Congress or the CIA has a population agenda for the Philippines?”

Fr. Diola then showed us Newsweek’s September 2004 cover entitled “Baby Bust”. Four years ago, Newsweek (which is often too critical of the Catholic Church doctrines) came up with an alarming story that countries that controlled its population were now experiencing a downward trend in their populations. It pointed out: “For more and more countries, the problem isn’t having too many people but having too few. Once zero population growth sets in, the trend is irreversible. Fr. Diola then asks, “So while countries like Singapore and others are encouraging higher population growth, here we have some people in the government trying to reduce our numbers.”

Perhaps, Rep. Nerissa Soon-Ruiz, one of the authors of this bill, ought to explain this to our people, 90% of whom are Catholic and obey Catholic doctrine. I’ve been on the forefront of the population issue, especially about Reproductive Health because I have read the dire consequences this would bring to the Philippines, which the Newsweek report four years ago pointed out would become “irreversible”. This is because the Reproductive Health bill would tamper with the will of God.

But to the folks who do not believe in God, I read a paper that Mr. Herb Meyer (who once served as a special assistant to the Director of the CIA during Pres. Ronald Reagan’s time) wrote entitled, “What in the World is Going On? A Global Briefing for CEOs” that he presented before the world’s CEOs in Davos, Switzerland. Meyer wrote: “Europe and Japan, which comprise two of the world’s major economic engines aren’t merely in recession, they’re shutting down. This will have a huge impact on the world economy and it is already beginning to happen.”

Why is this happening to Europe or Japan? Because of their low birth rates. This is why many Filipinos are going to these countries to work. Instead of reducing our population, we should reduce the number of politicians in this country because their corruption means that the DepEd cannot give enough classrooms, teachers and book to our poor. Yet we believe that education is the shortcut for the poor to get away from the vicious cycle of poverty. So the choice is yours: Cut down our population or cut down the number of our corrupt politicians who are the real cause of our poverty.