PH population our gift to the world

AT the recent Asean summit Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe told his confreres that the biggest threat to the world today was underpopulation. Coming from a head of state whose country is suffering from the “gray dawn” brought about by a fast ageing population, this did not come as a surprise. In Europe, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has uttered the same sentiments in European councils. In the meanwhile, France and Singapore are busy granting bonuses to newlyweds to reproduce more even as China has revised its population policy to allow for two children per family.

No such problem exists in this country. The Philippine population is our gift to the world. We are not referring to Manny Pacquiao or our beauty queens. We are referring more to the doctors, nurses and health workers that one can find in abundance in hospitals in the US, Europe, the Middle East and Asian countries. We are referring to the thousands of Filipino sailors on board the hundreds of vessels that sail the seven seas. We also refer to the thousands of service industry workers—from the domestic workers in Western Europe, Hong Kong and Singapore to the salespersons that take care of retail outlets in Doha, Dubai and other Middle East capitals. No less important are the Filipino priests who work in many parishes all over the world. Indeed, as the third biggest Catholic country in the world, Filipino missionaries are the vanguard of the Church’s evangelization efforts in many continents.