Will we really continue to overflow with new students? The reality about our birth rate

For more on the Wall Street Journal op-ed referenced here, see this: Wall Street Journal op-ed slams RH bill!

Your bosses, the schoolchildren
By: Antonio Montalvan II
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Monday, July 30th, 2012

“You must also tell it like it is,” President Aquino, in a foul mood, was heard castigating media at the recent anniversary celebration of “TV Patrol,” a prime-time news program. That’s what we think: He must tell it like it is by getting his facts right, especially in a State of the Nation Address.

The shortage of classrooms, desks and textbooks will be over, but “sikapin nating huwag uling magka-backlog dahil sa dami ng estudyante.” This is the nuance of that statement: More students are coming into our schools even as we address the backlog.

What kind of selective data is being whispered into his ears? Reading the litany of statistics on his teleprompter (impressive), the President could not have missed one glaring data from the National Statistics Office (NSO). The multisectoral nationwide Alliance for the Family Foundation Philippines Inc. (ALFI) took note of this discrepancy by comparing it to the government data from the NSO.

The data, easily accessed through the NSO website (www.census.gov.ph/data/sectordata/datavs.html), tell us that since the year 2000, the number of babies born every year has actually stopped increasing. Moreover, this has even dropped by 2.2 percent to 1.745 million babies born in 2009 as against 1.784 million babies born in 2008.

Finding new life unwelcome: a false understanding of responsible parenthood

Defeatist attitude evident in Sona line on parenthood bill

Philippine Daily Inquirer

July 31st, 2012

On the front page of the Inquirer’s July 24 issue, a news article quoted President Aquino as saying: “We are ending the backlogs in the education sector, but the potential for shortages remains as our student population continues to increase…. Perhaps the responsible parenthood bill can help address this.”

As I read this, the implication I deduced was that our student population must stop increasing and that the Responsible Parenthood bill can help stop this increase. Moreover, I gathered from the story that our lawmakers rapturously supported the suggestion.

I felt sad upon reading this news item. Which reflects a culture foreign to ours: one that finds new life unwelcome. Such attitude is the forerunner of the culture of death that overpowered the old world which seems unable to escape its grip. It is also the attitude of the defeated. This is so ironic. The President said, “Last year, I challenged you to fully turn your back on the culture of negativism; to take every chance to uplift your fellow Filipinos. From what we are experiencing today, it is clear: You succeeded.” And yet here are his legislators clapping their hands to show approval of the idea that we cannot educate an increasing population. They are showing defeat even before we have really fought the battle.

The Responsible Parenthood bill in its present form promotes contraception and not responsible parenthood. It is antilife. The term as used in the bill is a misnomer. Responsible parenthood as taught by Pope Paul VI means generously bringing into this world as many children that the parents are able to support and educate. And should they have good reasons not to have them for the time being or for always, then natural family planning is the option which essentially means discipline and respect of the spouses for each other, both of which are also signs of spousal love.

If the Responsible Parenthood bill espouses the original idea of responsible parenthood as taught by Paul VI, then it will be a bill worth supporting.

—FR. CECILIO L. MAGSINO

Archbishop Jose Palma: "There is an ill portent for the nation when government does not look at its own population as a source of grace and blessing."

Statement of CBCP President Archbishop Jose S. Palma D.D. on RH Bill

Every birth is a gift from God; every new life, a blessing; every birth a cause for rejoicing and praising God who creates new life only out of love.

Our country’s positive birth rate and a population composed of mostly young people are the main players that fuel the economy. A fact that even the government itself acknowledges as it is determined to feed, educate and keep the young people healthy.

And rightly so, for even our Constitution acknowledges that human resource is a primary social and economic force.

Earlier this year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas reported that the hard earned salaries of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) that were sent to their families for the first 11 months last year amounted to $18.3 billion, which is a 7.3 percent increase in the same period in 2010.

Filipino men and women who endure the travails of working on foreign soil play a significant role in propping up our economy.

The country’s robust population is a big boost to our economy, according to former US President Bill Clinton, local and international financial institutions and the public sector.

It is therefore quite disturbing when the country is told that having too many school children is a burden to the national budget.

Can we have enough of schooled, skilled, diligent and highly driven young people who are a driving force of economic progress?

The draconian population control policy of the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill would only curtail our economic growth. The problem of countries with former robust economies is the lack of young workers for their industries and inadequate support for their aging population.

The issue on maternal deaths is a serious concern. The solution does not lie in suppressing births as provided in the RH Bill.

Providing proper and adequate maternal care could be done without passing the RH bill, but by strengthening and improving access to existing medical services.

There is an ill portent for the nation when government does not look at its own population as a source of grace and blessing.

There is a grave reason to worry when government would rather suppress population through an RH bill instead of confronting the real causes of poverty.

+ JOSE S. PALMA, DD

Archbishop of Cebu

President, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines

Statement on RH Bill - Bishop Palma