Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew wants more kids!

As I was wrapping up to email this column, I got word from a close friend who told me that he heard that a tourism marketing group just recently returned from Shanghai with some bad news… that China was planning to stop all chartered flights from China to the Philippines. I was a bit surprised to hear this report, which should have a serious effect on our tourism industry.

My friend wanted me to validate this report. But so far from my end, we have not yet heard of this. But given that serious lack of transparency from the Aquino government when it comes to bad news like this, it is quite possible that China must be doing this in retaliation to our territorial claim of the Scarborough Shoal. If this is how China is reacting to the Spratly row, then they are now using economic sanctions to punish the Philippines. The question is… how far will China go? What economic sanctions will they slap on us in the near future? Let’s ask Pres. Benigno “PNoy” Aquino, III what the hell is happening to our relations with China?

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There was that news report that student leaders from the different universities that belong to the Student Council Alliance of the Philippines (SCAP) have threatened to campaign against politicians who do not support the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill. Notable amongst these politicians are Rep. Lucy Torres-Gomez, Rep. Cutie del Mar and Rep. Sergio Apostol.

Well, it’s about time that these students show their faces for if they are Catholics, they should be excommunicated. But then, my sources told me that most of these students belong to leftist organizations allied to the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and therefore, they don’t believe in God anymore. For sure, many of these students support divorce, same sex marriage or worse, abortion. In my book, they have no faith in God.

SCAP National Secretary-General Gibby Gorres said that in Cebu they are mobilizing students from the University of San Jose-Recoletos, Cebu Institute of Technology (CIT) and the University of San Carlos (USC) to campaign against these politicians and vote for those who are for the RH Bill. It seems to be that the lobby money that is being given to legislators to support the RH Bill has now been spread to student organizations.

But do these kids know what they are talking about? Supporting the RH Bill will eventually result in the decline of the Philippine economy, and proof of the pudding is in the eating. Take a look at Japan today. Its economy is on the decline because its population is aging and there are fewer children than what they had back in the 50s. Perhaps the best person to listen to is Singapore’s Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew who, only last May 7, came up with an article entitled “Warning Bell for Developed Countries: Declining Birth Rates” that came out in Forbes Magazine.

Lee Kuan Yew said, “There will be a shift in power unless birth rates increase in the developed world. In developed countries today many women receive educations and earn salaries that are on a par with men. The fact that women are no longer socially or economically dependent on men has radically altered young people’s lifestyles. A woman can now choose to remain single, marrying only when a man adds value to her life or when she desires to have children within such a framework. This is creating big chances throughout the developed world.”

This is what we’ve been saying all along… that the best way to prevent more children is having a job and it is for this very reason why there is a serious decline in the birth rates of Japan and Singapore. And this is the very reason why countries like Hong Kong, the Middle East and even as far as Papua New Guinea have a great need to hire Filipino workers who are considered among the best in the world. If they had big populations, then the Philippines would not be earning the billions annually from Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) whom we dub as our new heroes.

Finally, Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew said, “To encourage marriage and parenthood, Singapore’s government has instituted a wide array of measures, improved accessibility to quality child care, leaven entitlements for new mothers and parent of young children, and financial incentives to help defray the cost of raising children.

We have created a special account for each child in which parent’s savings have been matched dollar for dollar, by the government, with caps ranging from S$6,000 to S$18,000 depending on the birth order of the child. This was done to encourage parents to have three or four—or more—children.” For sure Lee Kuan Yew did not suddenly embrace Catholic doctrines. But he realized that it is better to have more people than less. Thank you Mr. Lee for giving us the reality in Singapore… which could happen to us also.

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