I do not understand why, in God’s name, Senator Vicente Sotto thinks the burgeoning population in this country is fiction rather than reality. He describes it as mere “myth.”
How could it be a myth when in the 1950 statistics both countries, the Philippines and Thailand, had a population of 20 million.
Now 60 years after, the Philippines has a population of 94 million and Thailand, 67 million!
If this won’t jolt the comedy-actor cum senator of the realm, I don’t know what will. For sure this disparity of having 27 million more is not a laughing matter. On the contrary, it should be taken seriously as we can see now how far up Thailand has gone and how far down we have retrogressed.
During those times, a comparison of population growth was made for the Philippines and Thailand. A family planning method was developed in similar stages that saw Thailand following it strictly and ‘religiously.’
Unfortunately, the Philippines did not, as the Church, even then, had always the propensity to harass and intimidate the political leaders and the faithful, making the politicians abnegate that which runs counter to the religious teachings and beliefs.
And so it was that after the experiment some years later, with Thailand having a contraceptive use rate of about 65% and total fertility of 2.1, it was recorded that Thailand had a population of 57 million, while the Philippines had 7.4 million more people.
On top of this discouraging reality was that the economic development of Thailand had gone by leaps and bounds, leaving us far behind in our turtle-pace economic growth.
Even Vietnam, another ASEAN country, which has been devastated by war in the late 60s, is fast catching up with us.
And so my question to Senator Sotto is: Haven’t we learned our lessons yet?
That economic development is tied up with population control can never be an argument, for it is true.
When population growth is outpacing economic growth by long strides there could never be progress in this country.
Let us not put our self-interests and false beliefs ahead of what is good for this country. Our unfortunate countrymen who are impoverished deserve a break and it is only government that could make a welcome difference in their lives.
Senator Sotto and company should seize this moment and show compassion and backbone in supporting President Aquino’s government in its sincere and humanitarian drive in uplifting the lives of the poor in terms of responsible parenthood. Instead of chiding, giving moral support to the Department of Health (DOH) officials is what is needed.
We respect the stand of the Church, but we should respect more those who are mandated to govern and look upon the welfare of the country and its people.
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