Congratulations to the Philippine Star for its lead editorial on the reproductive health bill (“Booming”, Jan. 3rd). Health gains as well as the costs of overflowing hospitals and schools are all valid arguments, and there are many more.
The 2.04 percent population growth rate is indeed a serious challenge, but statistics mask many problems. The wealthy have access to contraceptives. Poor Filipinos in general do not get sex education when they need it and cannot afford the means to control their fertility. There is a huge unmet demand for contraceptives, and as a result many families are having more children than they want or can afford to support. The social consequences are obvious, and frequently include unwanted separation as family members need seek work overseas to support those left behind.
The goal should be to empower all citizens to choose the family size right for them. It is not for government, the Church, me or anyone else to tell a family how many children to have. It is, however, a legitimate and just aim of public expenditure to ensure that the poor have access to the same means and choices as their richer countrymen in something as fundamental as when to bring new lives into the world.
There is a constant national debate as to why Asian neighbors that were far behind the Philippines 50 years ago have raced ahead. One reason is most certainly the continual failure of Congress to appropriate funds for reproductive health plans (NEDA has plenty of old ones gathering dust on its shelves). The ensuing population explosion has led to deforestation, waterways clogged with shacks and garbage, urban encroachment on agricultural land and the sub-division of farming lands into uneconomic mini-plots. A country that once exported rice and sugar instead imports them. Instead of gaining revenues from those exports, the Philippines dissipates its wealth on imported food and the Government budget is spent subsidizing rice for the poor instead of uplifting them through quality education and skills creation. The Asian tigers have in common that, in the early stage of their booms, they invested in agricultural productivity and in subsidized family planning for the poor. It is not too late to emulate them, especially as these still constitute excellent pro-poor investments from which the whole country will benefit.