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A2.3-percent growth rate in GDP or GNP for the
Philippines is mediocre by all acceptable growth benchmarks. We
exist in a region of super achievers, where a 5-percent growth rate
can be achieved without breaking a sweat. China is expected to be
the economic superpower by 2035, eclipsing the US.
A 2.3-percent growth rate is
incapable—utterly—of easing poverty, which mires more than 40
percent of the Philippine population.
The country’s 2.3 percent
yearly population growth rate is, however, another matter. It is a
blessing only in the eyes of the Church and among the high-powered
celibates. Outside of this confederacy of the childless, the
misguided apostles of population boom, it is recognized as a
problem—a ticking social time bomb and an economic disaster.
The problem is there is a gap
between the recognition of the population explosion and its curse
upon the nation (the rhetoric part), and the concrete initiatives to
curb the population growth, the action component.
And this is the result: we are
now the 12th in the list of countries with the most number of
people. Our land area is just the size of large state in the US. Our
natural resources have been depleted by too much exploitation and
abuse. Millions of Filipinos are working overseas, not because of
wanderlust but because the opportunities have dried up back home.
Yet, we have it wrong on our
policy on population. We are a prodigious producer of children with
a stillborn population policy. The government is clueless and
tentative. The nongovernment organizations working on population
control do not get real support.
The Church, built on a rock by
Peter thousands of years ago based on the bedrock creed that human
good is divine justice, has an infantile, marshmallow approach to
the population problem. The Church does not officially say these
words but they remain the antediluvian edict on population:
reproduce, go forth and multiply.
The latest Church pronouncement,
that it will refuse communion to politicians supporting population
control approaches other than rhythm, reminds us of the silly
decisions of the US bishops to refuse communion to John Kerry during
his US presidential bid in 2004. The bishops could not reconcile
Kerry’s Catholic belief with his support for abortion rights.
The intransigent stand of the
Church against non-rhythm based population control programs and its
enthusiastic support for the baloney called “planned parenthood”
are now viewed as detached from the harsh realities of food
shortages.
Over the past ten years,
population growth has been at 2.3 yearly, a runaway train. Food
production grew by less than two percent yearly. The gap is so huge
that the Philippines has been importing more than one million metric
tons of rice—the staple food—from 1998 to 2007. This year, rice
imports will be close to 2.7 million metric tons, the world record
for rice imports.
This year, tenders on rice
imports reached the unimaginable price of $1,000 per metric tons in
the global market before a mild softening. The prices will never
return to the level where they have been for decades, anywhere from
$300 to $400 per metric ton. Drought in Australia and the slowdown
of rice production in China and India will further tighten supply
and increase prices.
As if food shortages and
spiraling prices were not enough, the spike in the price of oil has
triggered a double-whammy which we and the world now confront.
Governments have been toppled by these combustible combination.
Protests have rocked the First World and Third World countries.
And, amid all these, the Church
remains unmoved by its population edict.
Progressive elements of Congress
have started rocking this immovable population policy of the Church
through bills such as the two-child policy. This is a good start.
Passing such bills with urgency is impossible. Most of the members
of Congress would not contradict the stand of the Church on
population.
But at the very least, there are
discussions on population strategies outside of what the Church
sanctions.
The food shortage and the oil
price shock have forced policy makers across the globe, including
the Philippines, to jettison the old ways of doing things and policy
orthodoxy. There is a lot of research and development work going on.
There is a shift from fossil fuel, old agricultural practices and
focus on renewable energy.
This frenzied search for
alternatives may be the right context to pierce through the
hypocrisy and obsolescence of the Church’s stand on population.
mvrong@yahoo.com
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