Corrupt politicians, not a large population, cause poverty, say Filipino bishops

from Asia News

by Santosh Digal

Too many people and failed population controls are the problem according to former Filipino President Ramos. The government meanwhile is implementing a plan to improve knowledge about birth control methods.

Government policies, not the number of mouths to feed, explain poverty in Philippines, this according to the Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, indirectly responding to criticism from former Filipino President Fidel V. Ramos, who blamed the government’s “undue subservience to the Catholic Church” for the country’s “very weak and lacklustre performance in terms of population policies, directions and programs.”

Mgr Oscar V. Cruz, archbishop of Pangasinan (Lingayen-Dagupan), said “certain politicians again loudly and proudly proclaim their old-time favourite thesis: population is the culprit for the poverty of the people and the misery of the nation.”

Without naming Ramos, Archbishop Cruz noted that these politicians complain that there are “too many mouths to feed with too little food to eat. There are too many people without work, without education, without health care. There is too much crime in the streets, too much garbage around, too much air pollution. Population is synonymous with disaster. Translation: population is the enemy of the state”.instead, he countered saying that it was wrong to insist that population was the “primary cause of all social adversities”. The archbishop cited China, Japan, and Hong Kong as wealthy economies with also big populations. The African continent has a small population. Yet it is not an affluent place.

“The question is—as it has always been—the kind of governance a country has,” the prelate said. “When political leaders lie, cheat and steal, when public offices become a common public curse especially in terms of graft and corruption, when public funds . . . go to private pockets, all these impoverish the nation, and violate the population.”

In his keynote speech at a population management forum at the Asian Institute of Management, former President Ramos blamed the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration for its alleged subservience to the Catholic Church on the issue of population control, pointing out that the Church allows only natural family planning methods.

Currently, he said, the population was estimated at over 87 million (85 per cent Catholic), growing at the rate of 2.36 per cent each year. By 2025, the number of Filipinos is projected to reach 115.7 million. This would prevent improving the economy and living conditions. Only a firmer population policy would allow for fewer births and a more “sustainable development”.

Despite criticism the government is introducing family planning measures. Its plan for ‘Responsible Parenting Movement’ is designed to balance the promotion of natural and artificial methods of birth control, said Tomas Osias, executive director of the Population Commission. The goal is to help couples better choose how to plan their families.

Some people “want to practice family planning but they don’t want to use artificial methods, maybe because of fear of side effects and complication, husband’s objection, culture and religious belief or affordability and access (to contraceptives),” Osias said. Under its plan, the government will target 4.2 million couples in 42,000 villages nationwide from 2007 to 2010 and teach them the various ways of birth control.