DEMAND AND SUPPLY By Boo Chanco
The Philippine Star 04/20/2007
Our beloved Ate Glue had been besieged lately by criticisms that despite her claims of an economic resurgence, millions of Filipinos remain mired in poverty and suffering daily from hunger. This has blunted her attempts to use improving macroeconomic fundamentals to show performance.
I want to commiserate with Ate Glue on this one, because solving the twin problems of hunger and poverty can’t be done in the short term. On the other hand, Ate Glue is also to blame for the situation she faces. She steadfastly denies the significant impact of our high population growth on the incidence of hunger and poverty. It is almost as if she was absent when her professors at the UP
Rapid population growth, according to a paper authored by a large number of UP economics professors, impedes economic growth, worsens inequality, and exacerbates poverty. "A sound population policy must be part of good governance to promote faster economic growth, lower inequality, and hasten poverty reduction."
There it is…as clear as daylight… the relationship between high population growth and reduction of poverty. This is not a religious issue. It is an economic and public policy issue. A religion may have an opinion on the matter but after that has been considered, responsible public officials must proceed to implement a policy that our situation dictates.
The issue came to mind in the light of a recent survey conducted by Pulse Asia Feb 16-20 which showed 89 percent of Filipinos want government to subsidize modern methods of family planning, including the pill, intra-uterine device, condoms, ligation and vasectomy. They are not satisfied with Ate Glue’s preference for natural family planning alone.
The survey said 75 percent of the adult population would support candidates who favor allocating government funds for family planning.
That should encourage candidates, specially for the Senate, to take up the burning issue. But it hasn’t. Even Sen. Ping Lacson, who in the past has bravely supported a proactive population program, hasn’t said much about it lately.
What can we expect? Remember how Ate Glue advised a Baseco resident to try natural family planning after the woman told her she and her equally jobless husband have had 18 children in 26 years? Ate Glue was presented an extreme case and she still wanted the woman to try natural family planning. That’s totally irrational if not bizarre!
After her term is over, if that happens in 2010, Ate Glue would be remembered for failing to achieve economic take off because of her failure to manage our population growth. What little accomplishments she has made would have been overwhelmed by our runaway population growth to make any real difference.
Curiously, former Health Secretary Alberto "Quasi" Romualdez accuses Ate Glue of handing over the country’s population program to the Catholic fundamentalists. The take-over of the heart of population activities was sneaky and deceptive but very systematic, Dr. Romualdez says. "It began with a ban on government procurement of contraceptive supplies even as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was in the process of discontinuing its program of supplying the government with condoms, IUDs, and pills.
"One hundred million pesos earlier programmed by the Estrada administration to take over support of family planning were diverted to finance a contract purportedly for development of natural family planning by a conservative Catholic group… Today the ban on procurement remains in force and there is no evidence that family planning was strengthened by this "natural" family planning effort."
Dr. Romualdez laments how the Arroyo administration changed the composition of the Population Commission "by appointing anti-poor conservatives to ‘balance’ its progressive leanings. This was done by appointing as commissioners one member of the shadowy Opus Dei and a member of the Couples for Christ. With both the policy and implementation arms of the population program well under their control, the conditions are now set for the Catholic extremists to begin dismantling the national program altogether."
Ate Glue says that in any case, the local governments are free to implement their own family planning programs. Unfortunately, the poorest of our people who need the program most are also in the poorest of provinces and towns that cannot afford to have a good program in place.
Worse, in places like the City of
The UP
So it seems our struggle to make the 7-8-9 percent growth rate we need to get the momentum to reduce poverty is made that more difficult by our surging population growth. It makes it more difficult for us to meet global standards of education, child and mother health, jobs, women’s rights, the environment, and other basic needs. And Ate Glue must take responsibility for that failure.
It is pretty obvious how our high population growth rate makes it more difficult for DepEd to upgrade the quality of public elementary and high school education. For one, DepEd Secretary Jesli Lapus blames the high birth rate as the reason why there is always a big backlog in classrooms, now estimated at over 45,775. "Every minute, four babies are born. It’s like every 10 minutes, I’m short of one classroom," Lapus said.
It also results in a very high pupil-to-teacher ratio and shortage of books and equipment. It is contributing to more infant mortality because our inadequate health facilities cannot cope. And, it is contributing the increasing incidence of hunger, as monitored by recent surveys.
Let us not forget too that because our population growth is too high, we have problems providing enough worthwhile jobs within the country. This has led to the OFW phenomenon and the break-up of Filipino families. We are now seeing a new generation of children who did not grow up in the traditional closely knit Filipino family and this separation from parents are probably at the root of society’s increasing incidence of drug abuse, premarital sex and violent crimes.
The impact to the environment of high population growth should also be considered. There will be serious problems in terms of pollution and even life and death competition over such resources as water.
Experts have determined that the government target of an annual population growth rate of 1.9 percent is impossible to meet, unless Ate Glue changes her approach to population management. The UP economists say the responsibility for formulating, financing and implementing a population policy cannot be left entirely to local governments.
Ultimately, the UP economists say, the majority of Filipino women across all socioeconomic classes have spoken: they want fewer children. And Filipinos in general have affirmed the importance of addressing the population issue. Good governance requires that government listen to the people’s voice.
Ate Glue must wake up to the reality that her ambitious economic growth targets are doomed without a good population program. I know she realizes this. But I don’t understand why she is ready to sacrifice her legacy by insisting on her population blinders.
| Tax deductible? |
Q: Are birth control pills tax deductible?
A: Only if they don’t work.
Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is bchanco@gmail.com
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