United Youth Alliance Against RH in Cebu - Shooting Straight Show with Bobit Avila - Full Video

Catholics 4 RH and the Abortion Lobby

This is the first post of the brand-new Filipino Catholic apologetics blog, "Pinoy Templars":

C4RH: Taking a page (and money) from the abortion lobby 
Elisa Sangalang
June 6, 2012

They call themselves Catholics, but they readily admit that their pro-contraception positions don’t agree with the Magisterium. With help from a few dissenting clergy, they are building their own teaching authority, insisting at the same time on the authenticity of their Catholic faith. They organize and hold rallies and protests. They align themselves publicly and privately with known liberal politicians, atheists, agnostics, church/religion haters, ultra-feminists and the LGBT crowd. They rely heavily on funding from population controllers and other anti-life sources like Planned Parenthood and the Ford, Packard and Hewlett Foundations. They bash the bishops and the Pope every chance they get, and habitually twist and manipulate anything coming out of the Vatican. 

This is Catholics for RH (C4RH), the mish-mash of academics, lapsed and nominal Catholics, and kibitzers out to undermine the official Church position on the controversial Reproductive Health (RH) bill. But that’s not the story. Looking a bit beyond the local group that has made itself a champion for the RH bill, you'll find that these “Catholics in name only” learned these strategies from a well-funded foreign mentor, and learned them well. 

Their mentor, with whom C4RH's leaders have enjoyed a rather chummy relationship for a while now, is none other than the dissident US pro-abortion group Catholics for Choice. 

The testimony of a former contraceptive pill user

From the "Letters to the Editor" section of the Philippine Daily Inquirer:

How contraceptive methods turn women into liars 
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Monday, June 4th,

The Mother’s Day editorial (“For mothers and their kids,” Inquirer, 5/13/12), using a “CNN hero” to call for the swift passage of the Reproductive Health bill, must have been written under a certain spell. Our Magna Carta for Women, which just needs to be implemented, more than covers all our needs. 

Turning his back on an election promise that he would “not promote” contraceptives, the only new thing in President Aquino’s RH bill is a P3 billion yearly budget for contraceptives—found by the most reliable science to be harmful.

I always felt sick every time I used the pill. Now I know why. The 2010 study of the prestigious Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention concluded that “Current use of oral contraceptives carries an excess risk of breast cancer” and that “Previous studies convincingly showed an increase in risk of breast cancer associated with current or recent use of oral contraceptives from the 1960s to 1980s.” 

We also have three separate meta-analyses: (1) the Stroke Journal—Pill confers “risk of first ischemic stroke”; (2) The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism of 2005—“current use of low-dose OCs significantly increases the risk of both cardiac and vascular arterial events”; and (3) Archives of Family Medicine—the Pill works after fertilization; and thus aborts a 100-cell embryonic human. 

Plus many other serious studies showing that contraception increases promiscuity, leading to more AIDS cases, more single mothers, more fatherless children, more female poverty. 

As the Philippine Medical Association itself said:  Contraception turns women into liars. “I give myself to you entirely,” I tell my husband, “but I don’t give you a key part of me: my fertility!” 

I tell you: when my husband was using a condom, I could feel na ginagamit niya lang ako. I’ve told him so; and he has been so good as to change his behavior. 

Is the Inquirer really pro-women? Or has the Inquirer just been victimized and fallen under the spell of the materialistic, animalistic, amoral and atheistic brainwashing of the powerful media of the degenerate West? 

—YVONNE CHAN-DE LOS REYES

Challenging the birth control mentality

Teaching Purity 

Changing World 

By DR. BERNARDO M. VILLEGAS 

May 17, 2012 


MANILA, Philippines — The birth control mentality deeply encrusted in the controversial RH Bill is increasingly out of synch with numerous pronouncements of international economists, business strategists, and foreign investors who are heaping praises on the Philippines for having a large, young, and growing population. The alarming voices from population control advocates, who used to categorically state that the Philippine population has already breached the 100-million mark, have been at least temporarily silenced by the revelation that the 2010 Census of Population and Housing by the National Statistics Office (NSO) placed the 2010 population at only 92.34 million, with the growth rate slowing down to an annual average of 1.9% during the 2000-2010 period from 2.34% in 1990-2000. Neomalthusians should be relieved that the Philippine population will not double in the next 30 years and will plateau at about 145 to 150 million some time before the middle of the present century. Given the high probability that Philippine GDP can grow at an average of 7% to 9% during the next 20 years, a population of some 150 million, mostly young Filipinos and Filipinas, will be a great advantage in a global village of predominantly aging countries in the developed world, including our Northeast Asian neighbors such as Japan, South Korea, and China. At 150 million people by mid-century the Philippines will have the population density of resource-poor but highly developed South Korea today.

Where did the money come from? And more on population control.

From Valeriano "Bobit" Avila's column on May 21, 2012, titled Will NEDA now push for the RH bill?

There is no doubt that just like the Senate Impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona, PNoy has literally used all the instrumentalities of the Philippine government in order to pin down CJ Corona… even with lies and innuendoes. I can only second-guess that the same thing is happening in his pushing for the RH bill.

A case in point is the report by newly-appointed Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan (last week, he took over from NEDA Sec. Cayetano Paderanga who quit due to health reasons) who got his marching orders from the President to fast track the Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects, which after almost two years as President has failed to take off. But his other Presidential order is to support the RH bill. Come now…will NEDA and the Regional Development Council Region 7 be pushing for the RH bill?

For sure, Sec. Balisacan is getting international help in promoting the RH bill, when the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) reported that their Philippine Office raised US28.5 Million in one year and that this money will be used to promote reproductive and maternal health, one of the country’s Millennium Development Goals.

My question is… where did that US$28.5 Million come from? Are they the foreign lobby money for the RH bill that has been used to pay for expensive one-page advertisements by leftist students organizations purportedly supporting the RH bill? Let’s see if the Aquino regime will show some kind of transparency and tell the Filipino people where the money to support the RH bill came from.

As the nation’s top economist, Sec. Balisacan ought to listen to Singapore’s Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew who, as we already wrote that 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.” The old world thinking that fewer people mean a better economy is already passé’. Sec. Balisacan should be advised that his economic policies should look further after the Aquino government where they boasted that the economy would be much better. But then if we cut down our population, then please don’t expect a rosy future ahead for our country, thanks to PNoy’s RH bill that he will pass very soon.

"It is amazing how the playbook of pro-abortion progressives remains the same wherever they go."

From Catholic News Agency:

A bill to nowhere 

By Brian Caulfield 

May 14, 2012

Recently I spent two weeks in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, and I am happy to report that the faith of the people is still strong in that majority Catholic country. Yet there are rumblings against the faith on the horizon. In the United States, we have the HHS mandate threatening religious liberty. In the Philippines, they are fighting the RH (Reproductive Health) Bill. 

The same strategies that have played out over the years in our country are being implemented in the Philippines, with the backing of international agencies that seek to limit population, ostensibly to enhance economic growth and social progress. The late Cardinal O’Connor of New York, the great pro-life leader, used to say that before human life and morals can be attacked there must first be an attack on language. You must get people to think in different terms before leading them to act in different ways. In the United States, the old Birth Control League became Planned Parenthood, pro-abortion became “pro-choice,” unborn babies became “fetuses” or “products of conception,” and so on. 

In the Philippines, a bill designed to limit family size, push contraceptives and abortifacients, and expose fourth graders to sexual education is cast in terms of women’s “health.” Who can be against health for women, especially young mothers? As is true with every assault against decency and morals, the Catholic Church is cast as the main enemy of “science” and “progress.” It is amazing how the playbook of pro-abortion progressives remains the same wherever they go. Attack the Church as backward and oppressive, hold up anti-life technology as the source of Western prosperity, and infiltrate the media and the schools. The strategy which has brought Europe to the brink of demographic disaster, and threatens the future of a somewhat healthier United States, has had some success in the Philippines. It is “cool” there to be Western and secular, to be single and childless, and almost every national celebrity is for the RH Bill, even though their public statements indicate that they have not read much of the actual text. Lea Salonga, the Filipina who has starred on Broadway in “Miss Saigon” and “Les Miserables,” and voiced some popular Disney cartoons, used to be my favorite female performer until I read that she volunteered to be an ambassador for the RH Bill. The only prominent name that has spoken against the bill is world champion boxer Manny Pacquiao, who is also an elected representative. The media loves to cover his victorious matches and extol him as a national hero, but when it comes to the RH Bill, they treat him as a know-nothing boxer.

The good news is that the RH Bill has been blocked in both the Philippine House and Senate year after year, due to the efforts of some brave legislators who are not afraid to buck the celebrity tide and withstand media ridicule. The Philippine bishops are also very vocal and clear in their opposition, and a large number of faithful Catholics take heed, including young people who are using modern means of communication and social media to spread the word that the mainstream media will not let get out. 

I was in the Philippines (where my wife was born and grew up) for the Knights of Columbus National Convention, which was attended by Supreme Knight Carl Anderson. He said that defeat of the RH Bill must be a high priority for Filipino Knights because the Philippines is a great country, with a great people and a great culture of life that is worth preserving. Let’s pray that the culture of death embodied in the RH Bill will continue to fail when faced with the faith, hope and charity – and values – of the Filipino people. 

Brian Caulfield is editor of the website Fathers for Good, an initiative by the Knights of Columbus that features regular articles, videos and other multimedia on the subject of Christian fatherhood. A father of two young boys, Brian writes on the spiritual truths found in daily life and the issues men face while striving to live out their vocation.

Youth Manifesto for Life and versus the RH Bill: "In solidarity, we declare our opposition to the RH Bill. This is our voice. This is our vote."

For the background to this Manifesto, see the following CBCP for Life article: Youth alliance rejects RH bill, declares support for pro-life solons. 

Our Voice Our Vote Youth Manifesto

UP Student Catholic Action versus the RH Bill

UP Student Catholic Action Stand on RH Bill 

A call for Truth, Freedom, Justice and Love 

As both houses of the Philippine Congress convene for the resumption of sessions, our (75 years of) undaunted vigilance as (the University of the Philippines Student Catholic Action) calls us to proclaim and defend the values attacked by the Reproductive Health Bill in its various facets. 

WE CALL FOR TRUTH. Let the fiction of Reproductive Health needs be exposed for the fabrication that it is. Let there be an end to the safe sex myth that covers up the harms caused by contraceptives, ranging from carcinogenic to abortifacient effects. Let the underlying fear-mongering due to the population explosion hoax be stopped. Let the scientific, medical, economic, demographic, and constitutional facts – that life begins at conception, that our population size is an asset, that our state enshrines protection of the unborn, that not people but corruption and improper government priorities are the main causes of our economic problems – bring finality once and for all to the verbal engineering used to decorate the redundant population control deception. 

WE CALL FOR FREEDOM. Let the liberty that is enshrined in the constitution and which is fundamental in every human being be respected and protected. Let parents have, by virtue of their being proper guardians, the primary and decisive role in the formation of their children, free from unwanted intrusion of sex agendas integrated in school formation by the state. Let couples be not constrained from receiving marriage licenses shall they not comply with reception of contraceptive instruction that may be against their personal beliefs. Let homes decide and not be meddled with in determining their ideal family size. Let schools, especially the religious ones, be not compelled to teach mandatory contraceptive ‘education’ to students. Let medical practitioners, in line with their conscience and promises declared in the Hippocratic Oath, be not coerced into performing or prescribing contraceptive procedures which may result to medical complications of patients. Let employers be not burdened, even if unwilfully, with entitling their employees with contraceptive services. Let the state, rather than penalizing with imprisonments and fines and crippling the rights of its citizens be guided by the principle of Subsidiarity, and not usurp powers and judgments rightfully delegated to parents, students, couples, families, schools, employers, and healthcare practitioners. 

WE CALL FOR JUSTICE. Let human rights be guaranteed for all people, especially the most small, the helpless, and the very young – for that a human being is the size of a pinprick does not take away his or her humanity, and never would be a justification for the injustice of abortifacient murder of most innocent lives. Let distributive justice guide the proper appropriation of resources where such is most needed – education, agricultural reform, employment generation, health – and not for the mere satisfaction of lust through contraceptives which are after all widely available. 

WE CALL FOR LOVE. Let us look at the Filipino as a person of potential and not as a population problem. Let us see every offspring as a blessing to be nurtured and not exterminated. Let us reclaim the sexual faculty for its beautiful nature of procreation and union, and not of mere recreation, that is perverted by the contraceptive culture of the misnomer ‘safe’ or ‘protective’ intercourse. As members of UPSCA, we irrevocably stand for the ultimate foundation of Human Rights – that is the Truth that men are created in the image and likeness of the Almighty. We pray that this dignity be upheld and be not compromised for the sake of purporting economic development. May Love propel us to the realization that through safeguarding Life and Freedom, we practice the virtue of Justice to ourselves and to our fellowmen. Urged on by the beacons of Truth, Freedom, Justice, and Love, we call for the immediate disposal of the Reproductive Health Bills and the prioritization of the pro-life bills HB 19 of Rep. Roilo Golez titled “An Act Providing for the Safety and Protection of the Unborn Child” , SB 2497 of Sen. Juan Ponce-Enrile titled “Protection of the Unborn Child Act”, and HB 3667 of Rep. Amado Bagatsing titled “New Anti-Abortion Act of 2010”. Let us not compromise Life and Human Dignity with undaunted liberalism, unsound freethinking, and unbridled modernization. 

NO TO RH BILL! 

EQUAL RIGHTS FOR ALL HUMAN BEINGS! 

UP STUDENT CATHOLIC ACTION- Diliman

Student Catholic Action of the Philippines versus the RH Bill

SCAP+Position+on+RH+Bill

The Filipino youth is not an army of pro-RH robots

From CBCP News and CBCP for Life:


Youth continue to debunk claims of being pro-RH bill 
May 1, 2012

Another member of the youth sector has brushed off the claims of the Student Council Alliance of the Philippines (SCAP) that the youth will fiercely campaign against lawmakers who oppose the reproductive health bill currently pending in Congress. 

Aaron Ricardo de Veloso, who recently graduated with a degree in Political Science from the University of the Philippines-Diliman, declared that the claim of SCAP’s representatives is presumptuous. 

SCAP has earlier asserted in a press statement that the youth will fiercely campaign against anti-RH lawmakers in next year’s mid-term elections, but leaders of several student and youth organizations denied the assertion. 

Singles for Christ statement versus the RH Bill

From the website of SFC Global:

We Say `Yes` to Our Future Families, `No` to the RH Bill 

April 26, 2012

Dear fellow Filipinos: 

With the Congress` upcoming opening session, CFC Singles for Christ urgently renews its stand against the RH Bill and its commitment to life. 

The forces that are pushing to have the RH Bill passed into law are blind to the impact of similar bills in other countries. While appealing to a sense of “progressiveness” and modernity, the bill directly attacks values central to the Filipino family and specifically, to womanhood. 

We propose to our fellowmen and to our legislators: 

1.) Champion family planning methods that strengthen Filipino marriages. Contraception destroys the bond of love and trust between couples. Aside from this seemingly intangible effect, research shows that contraceptives cause cancer, irregular bleeding, and depression, among others. At heightened risk to women, the RH Bill ishardly “empowering women” nor is it really looking after “maternal health.” As future mothers and fathers, Singles for Christ, we believe natural family planning methods show true respect and honor, not just for the human body, but for the human person. 

2.) Uphold the right to life of the most powerless person, the unborn. Singles for Christ believes that total human liberation should not be limited to human persons who are able to articulate their own aspirations, but extends to the tiniest human being, whom the RH Bill proposes we should all be “empowered” to annihilate at will. 

3.) Use government funding for poverty alleviation not for contraception. As a community dedicated to working with the poor, we believe that state funding should be given to more pressing national concerns like poverty and corruption and NOT to institutionalize contraceptives as “essential medicines”, as if pregnancy were a disease. 

We may not be parents at present, but we have a huge stake in the future state of the Filipino family. It is for our yet to be born children that we oppose the RH Bill. Again, CFC Singles for Christ reiterates that it has been and will always be on the side of life, and decidedly against the RH Bill. We humbly enjoin our legislators to uphold the interests of their unborn constituents and work so that the best choices are given to the Filipino people. 

Michael Ariola 

International Coordinator 

CFC Singles for Christ

International head of Knights of Columbus calls for greater resistance versus the RH bill

Update (May 17, 2012):

The following is a video of Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson's speech versus the RH Bill:




From CBCP News:

RH bill defeat top priority for Knights of Columbus — Supreme Knight 

MANILA, April 29, 2012

The defeat of the reproductive health bill is the number one issue for the Knights of Columbus, according to KC Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson. 

The religious organization’s efforts in defeating the bill must be top priority, Anderson told a group of Council chaplains on the first day of the KC’s 9th National Convention at The Manila Hotel, April 27.

 “We’re not just competing with wealthy organizations and drug companies. We’re also competing against spiritual powers, so we have to use spiritual weapons. We have to be smart, and we have to fight back smartly. So we’re going to tell the convention tonight, the number one issue for the Knights of Columbus: defeat RH bill,” he stressed. 

 Pointing out that even the United States is wrestling with the grave consequences of contraception becoming a cultural norm and “reproductive health” being legislated, Anderson explained why things such as contraception, abortion and sterilization finding their way into a government mandate must be rejected. 

HLI Documentary versus the RH Bill now online

Human Life International's documentary on the fight against the RH bill in the Philippines can now be viewed on the following page:

The Philippines: Preserving a Culture of Life

The Youth, the RH Bill and Humanae Vitae

If RH bill is for "choice", then why does it endanger freedom of religion?

From CBCP for Life:

RH bill denies freedom of religion, choice – lawyer

MANILA, April 19, 2012—As pro-lifers in the United States gear up for another nationwide rally for religious freedom in June to protest the birth control mandate, numerous Filipinos still need to open their eyes to the fact that one of the Philippine government’s proposed measures violates the freedom of religion.

Atty. Ma. Concepcion Noche, president of the Alliance for the Family Foundation Philippines Inc. (ALFI) said that the Reproductive Health (RH) bill, which has divided the nation due to contradictory viewpoints and insufficient understanding of its implications, tramples on the people’s religious freedom, a freedom protected by the 1987 Philippine Constitution.

Based on the bill, healthcare workers and medical professionals are forced to provide RH supplies and services or participate in practices that go against their religious convictions — referring patients to others who would provide the services concerned is participation nonetheless. Employers also must either provide RH services to their employees or suffer the consequences as specified by the legislative measure.

“Dangling a criminal penalty of imprisonment and/or fine, believers will find themselves torn between fidelity to God and loyalty to their country. This unjustly limits the right to conscientious objection on the part of health care workers and medical professionals,” Noche explained.

“For the exercise of religious freedom to be truly meaningful, individuals should be allowed to profess and practice their faith by freely seeking and serving God in their hearts, in their lives and in their relationship with others, without fear of persecution or punishment. Only in this way can this right be truly guaranteed,” Noche pointed out.

The current set-up already allows respect for the religious beliefs of everyone, the lawyer said.

“But once a national policy on contraception is legislated, that changes the landscape altogether. Making it a matter of national policy or institutionalizing contraception via RH Bill and allocating billions of our scarce resources, will deprive us of our choice because the government will effectively have made that choice already for the Filipino families,” she explained.

What ‘separation of Church and State’ means

Much as separation of Church and State has been invoked by those who insist that the practice of one’s moral convictions has no place in the public square, this principle has often been misunderstood.

“Under our Constitution, the command against the violation of the separation of the Church and State is directed to the State — not to the Church — which is mandated to steer clear of the religious realm and give utmost respect to the exercise of religion. So, with the RH Bill, is the State poised to breach this wall of separation?” Noche remarked.

“The State exists for persons, as a guarantor and defender of their rights,” she continued. “In the face of ever-changing social conditions that confront us as individuals and as a people, the central question is: What are the requirements that government may reasonably impose upon its citizens and how far should they extend?”

Religious convictions have no place in the political process, some RH bill advocates have said. Noche, on the other hand, disagreed with this notion.

On the contrary, “As demonstrated by St. Thomas More when he defied the sovereign of which he was a “good servant” and chose to serve God first, religion has an important place in the political process. For indeed, it has been proven time and again that for democracy to be stable, it needs a foundation of moral principles based upon faith and religion.” (CBCP for Life)

Even without an RH Bill, the Philippines' population growth rate is still declining

Phl population on a decline w/o an RH Bill

SHOOTING STRAIGHT

Valeriano Avila 

The BusinessWorld’s Monday edition headline entitled “Population Count at P92.34M” is something that we’ve already known and written intensely. Allow me to quote the opening statement of that article, “The country’s population ballooned to 92.34 million in 2010 even as the pace of growth has slowed, latest official estimates show.” This is what we’ve been harping about in the last two years under the Aquino Regime that continues to insist that we need a Reproductive Health (RH) Bill to cull our purportedly “runaway” population growth.

This was the report that came from the 2010 Census of Population and Housing by the National Statistics Office (NSO) which proves that our annual population growth rate is only 1.9% when it should be at least 2.1%. This means our population is now declining, to think we don’t even have an RH Bill yet, as it is still being debated in the Congress floor. We have already more than emphasized that when populations go on a decline, it will take at least 3 or 4 generations before the decline can be arrested.

Our best example to date is Japan, whose population peaked after World War II, but then because of the remarkable economic growth that Japan experienced after the war, her population started to decline in the last 60 years. Today, so many kindergarten schools have shut down. Middle or high school campuses are almost empty and there are more old people walking the streets than young people.

By the time the Japanese government realized their serious mistake, it was already too late for them. Just a couple of years ago, at least two major Japanese multinational companies urged their employees to go home early and make babies. I don’t know if that program had an effect on Japan’s economic growth. Another country is Singapore, which, due to their being a small country, had no choice but to build high rise tenement housing for their people. Thus, with limited room, they could ill-afford to have more children because of their cramp spaces.

Now, Singapore is trying to attract an expat population so they could hire the best and the brightest from other nations. Without this, Singapore’s economy would ground to a halt. We are so blessed here in the Philippines because we have a robust population growth. Look at all the nations experiencing a robust economic growth in these times… China, India. I rest my case.

Without a doubt, the Philippines does not need an RH Bill. If there is anything that we direly need, it is to stop the imbalance in our money or wealth distribution. The rich continues to thrive, while the poor remains in that vicious cycle of poverty with no prospect of getting out of it. If the lot of the poor in our society can be elevated to become the middle class, it would mean a balanced distribution of wealth.

There’s a book entitled “Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty” written by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, which syndicated columnist Thomas Friedman wrote about recently. I already ordered this book in FullyBook as I don’t want to get it in e-books. Anyway, the present system of governance in this country, where the ruling political and business elite have all but excluded the poor from our nation’s development, only tells you what we’ve been saying all along… we need a total overhaul of our current centralized system. If we don’t, someday Myanmar will overtake us and this is a reality we could face in the future.

Meanwhile, there’s that phenomenon whereby so many people living in the rural areas are migrating to live in urban centers. This is something that the Philippine government ought to look into. Manila based commentators insist that we are overpopulated because, like what the last Census has shown, the CALABARZON area is now the most populous with 12.61 million people living in the outskirts of Metro Manila, which is has become the second placer with 11.86 million people. Cebu with 2.62 million is not bad.

Once more we appeal to our readers, especially those Catholics whose hearts are close to our Lord Jesus Christ to come out in the open and help expose this despicable crime that would fall upon our nation under the guise of being a health program to protect women, when the reality is, the RH Bill is merely aimed to legalize the killing of the unborn.

Incidentally, I was at the drugstore the other day getting my prescription medicines and saw condoms, which you could buy over the counter in all drugstores. So if condoms are freely available (not only in drugstores but even in convenience stores), why is there a need to legislate this? Clearly the aim is to let corporations pay for the condoms or other contraceptive needs of its employees… something that unfortunately even the Cebu Chamber of Commerce, Inc. (CCCI) are totally unaware of.

Who's scared of 92.3 M Filipinos?

The following was published on the website of Business Mirror on April 17, 2012:

Debunking the population bogey  

Mercedes B. Suleik 

“92.3 MILLION AND GROWING!” screamed the headline of one broadsheet. This was followed by the sub-headline “100 million Filipinos by 2015” which would simply scare the heebie-jeebies out of anyone. And of course, seized upon by the proponents of the RH Bill, as a great way of pushing their agenda forward—how are all those mouths going to be fed?

Once again one of oldest myths of economic literature which continue to belabour the consequences of population on the pace and process of economic growth is being rehashed. The Malthusian proposition of 1798 has become some kind of dogma to population junkies. Proponents of this doctrine have sanitized it to look like an innocuous, reasonable proposal to promote economic development. Poor countries, let’s be honest and say, the Philippines, has been the target of this campaign to “manage population” as a national policy.

Expanded elaborations of the Malthusian theme raised the bogey of difficulties of feeding expanding populations and of pressures on capital formation – assessments we might say were mostly concerned with short-run, direct impacts and downplayed indirect and longer-run effects that would likely occur due to price responses, institutional changes, and certainly technological innovations that poor old Malthus never imagined would ever come to pass. As a matter of fact, well-known economist Simon Kuznets, basing his conclusion on longer-run assessments, found that based on simple correlations, a net negative impact of population growth on per capita output was not obvious in the data. Indeed, a number of findings highlighting both the productivity of human capital and the importance of technical change put into question the highly pessimistic Malthusian underpinnings of the population bomb theories.

Now comes an even more positive window of opportunity in the development of society and a nation—studies that show a demographic dividend that countries such as our may exploit, by laying down appropriate policies that would make possible faster rates of economic growth and human development as fertility rates decline.

In the case of the Philippines, its population has increased at the average rate of 1.9 percent annually for the period 2000-2010 (in contrast to the lie that has been fed to our legislators and RH advocates – 1.9 percent versus the touted 2.3 percent, happily endorsed by USAID and UN-MDG people who have dangled the carrot of development with the stick of birth control—even non-statisticians can see the huge difference!

What is this demographic dividend? Simply stated, the demographic dividend occurs when a falling birth rate changes the age distribution so that fewer investments are needed to meet the needs of the youngest age groups and resources are released for investment in economic development and family welfare. A falling birth rate makes for a smaller population at young, dependent ages and for relatively more people in the adult age groups – who comprise the productive labor force. It improves the ratio of productive workers to child dependents in the population, allowing for faster economic growth and fewer burdens on families.

It may be mentioned that the effect of this drop in fertility rates is not immediate. There is a lag that produces a generational population bulge that for a time exerts a burden on society and increases the dependency ratio. Eventually this dependent group will reach the productive labor force, and the dependency ratio will decline dramatically, leading to the so-called demographic dividend. This is the time when effective policies can facilitate more rapid economic growth, putting less strain on families. During the course of the demographic dividend, four mechanisms that will benefit society may be delivered through increased labor supply; increase in savings; human capital; and increased domestic demand.

Indeed, no less than BSP Gov. Amando Tetangco Jr. stated that the country’s large population of young workers with purchasing power provides the economy with the demographic dividends that are good for consumption and investments. This period in an economy’s history where more people or a prominent portion of the population is of working age results in greater purchasing power which can drive consumption, savings, and investment. He said that our average age is 22.2 years, with nearly half a million graduates entering the labor force each year, providing companies with a large pool of manpower to fill their requirements. By 2015, Tetangco said, we will reach that demographic sweet spot.

Our country should take advantage of the opportunity to enhance the key features of the economic life cycle. The productivity of young people depends not just on the availability of jobs but on their capacity to take up employment opportunities, i.e., education. As an aside, it has also been mentioned that there is a “second demographic dividend” which relates to a large proportion of older working age people who face longer periods of retirement, accumulate assets, and contribute to the economy’s consumption, savings, and investment. May I appeal to the one-track minded anti-life advocates to sit up straight and think through the benefits of the demographic dividend that we have been blessed with – and by the way, this dividend period, according to Wikipedia, is neither automatic or permanent and would last approximately five decades. So we better not muff it!

On the courage of pro-life youths in the face of RH propaganda

RH BILL SUPPORTERS DO NOT INTIMIDATE PRO-LIFE YOUTH

In reply to: RH bill foes face the wrath of student groups

The youth, as everyone knows, is a major stakeholder in this RH Bill, and this is the very reason why I find it very important to speak up about it. As a youth and as a concerned citizen of our beloved country, I want my voice to be heard as well by our government officials as I want the best for our nation.

After studying the RH bill’s contents, I fully believe that this should have no place in our country. Its “reproductive health” terminology is a mere disguise for it’s real purpose of indoctrination of the youth and population control. Moreover, the promotion of contraceptives included in this bill actually contradicts its terminology of “health” when studies show countless harmful side effects of these contraceptives. This bill transcends religion, race, and socio-economic status. Those who really study the bill and read between the lines know that this is very divisive and harmful to our country, and we must be extra careful not to be affected by the multi-million dollar monetary pressure from international organizations lobbying for its passage.

Politics have always been very powerful in our Filipino culture. Before elections, we see big improvements and we notice project after project of our leaders. This, apparently, is the same approach used by the author of the article. They are very much free to present their views, but I want to firmly say that they do not represent even close to the majority of those in the youth sector. There are also a lot of youth who are against the passage of the RH bill. It really struck me to see the word “wrath” in the article, as if they’re furious about it not being voted upon. While the pro-RH camp may choose to go with “wrath”, the anti-RH camp will choose the peaceful but strong assertiveness to convince our legislators to take a stand against this divisive bill, and support the pro-life legislators in the next election. The pro-RH individuals noted in the article may be university leaders, but they do not intimidate us, even a little bit. The fight to preserve our nation’s pro-life, pro-family, pro-God culture will continue and will dare not stop until this RH bill is finally trashed.

John Walter Brown Juat

3rd Year Education

University of the Philippines, Diliman

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(UPDATED) Are the youth really pro-RH? A UP student's response to the pro-RH "youth leaders" vowing to mobilize the youth to vote against pro-life congressmen

UPDATE 4/3/12: This note has now been published on the website of the Philippine Daily Inquirer: Diño speaking youth’s voice?

Originally published on this blog on March 26, 2012:

A note from Kiboy Sagrado Tabada (PSHS alumnus and currently a student in UP Diliman) in response to the PDI article "RH bill foes face the wrath of student groups.":

Heart Diño’s seat in the USC was favored by a mere 17.02% of UP’s student population. Heart was voted into the council by 3,290 students out of roughly 19,300. Tell me, does Heart Diño speak the voice of UP’s studentry? Ideally, yes. But in reality, no.

Heart was reported to have said that lawmakers “should not belittle the youth vote,” that “they should listen to what the youth are actually saying.” Listen to the youth? Or listen to you? I am part of the youth and I oppose the RH Bill. I believe that a lawmaker’s vote for the RH Bill is a vote against the real welfare of the youth, against the future of the youth. And I speak for the youth who stand against it and for the rest of my generation who do not know that it’s their future that’s at stake. On this matter, Heart Diño does not speak my voice. By what strong mandate can Heart speak the youth’s voice?

TO PRO-LIFE LEGISLATORS, STAND YOUR GROUND. The youth are with you. The youth know that you have our best interests in mind in your opposition to the RH Bill. There is no honor in instilling fear to get you to vote for the measure. There is no honor in ruining someone else’s credibility to forward our own. We from UPD ought to know this. We remain ready to speak for and defend our position by its merits. And we will stand with and campaign for you by your merits as real representatives of the youth’s welfare. There is no reason for you to fear.

I have great respect for Heart Diño and JC Tejano as student leaders, as representatives of the youth. But allow me to remind you that they ought to hear my voice, too; that they ought to speak my voice, too. You may claim that I speak for a mere minority. Don’t they?