Birth control, NOW!

One of the top priorities of government should be controlling the population explosion. While it is undeniable that poverty will be addressed through sound economic policies, what prevents and delays development is the difficult task of plugging the hole of uncontrolled population increase.

Compare the fact that the country’s GDP in 2015 was $305 billion with 102 million population ($3,000 per capita) to Singapore’s $308 billion GDP with just 5.5 million population ($56,000 per capita). The 20 times disparity in per capita is really overwhelming.

Factors that cascade from there is our worsening 20 percent poverty rate, higher than most countries in the region.

Some churches that frown on birth control, without leaving its doctrinal suasion, will have to take note of how serious the problem is for the nation if they pursue opposition to drastic measures to curb the birth rate. The immense social problems are as much a concern to them as the spiritual side. The least the church can do is step aside to let the government adopt the legislative and executive measures to halt unbridled population growth.

Furthermore, scholarships and special amelioration funds of government should be linked to the family’s ability to keep its size in control. In a way, we empower the family to take responsibility over their future.

We see the outright impact of the damaging effect to the nation when the yearly diaspora of our young workers to other countries increases at the rate of 15 percent of total labor force. The World Bank took note of this deleterious phenomenon of losing our young workers to emigration: “If this trend continues, it will be difficult for the Philippines to generate economic growth from its labor force (WB Growth and Productivity in the Philippines, 2018 IBRD).” – Marvel K. Tan, Quezon City