VIA Times – August 2014 Issue Vital News, Vibrant Views for Asian Americans in Chicago & Midwest
By: Joe Mauricio
The population of the Philippines has reached 100 million in 2014. Now what? Is this small country shooting for 200 million? Enough! But that is not enough. The Catholic Church in the Philippines has a very strong influence on the government, and is totally against any kind of birth control. Many middle-class Filipinos would like to limit the size of the family, but the influence of the Catholic Church echoes in their minds. Because of poverty, poor families rely on their children to help with the financial burdens. With the high infant mortality rate among the poor, it sorts of evens out the large birth rates. And, yes, the poor need to be educated, not just in raising a family but also litaracy, at all levels. It is easy to blame the government or the Catholic Church for the Philippines’ population explosion, but these factors are too far removed from the real root cause….it bites us on the ass and we still ignore it. The root cause could be the irresponsible parents themselves, with the 100 million in the Philippines and six billion of the world population, impacting every family’s ability to cope. Global overpopulation is the greatest risk to public health, food production, environmental problems, crime and hunger. When is the Philippine Catholic Church going to support the H.R. (Human Reproductive) Bill? When the country reached 200 million, 300 million or 500 million? Now is the time to act before the Planet Earth explodes! Filipinos shouuld limit the number of children per couple. Educating the poor since the largest population boom, is always among the poor. And, remember if the population gets too big, it suffers from massive die-off like the virulent disease now in Africa, which nature tends to balance with the Ebola virus, earthquakes in China, typhoones in Asia, and wars on the Middles East. Humans are a very hardy species and we will survive the balancing act of nature, but it is up to us humans to implement a program of selfpreservation– limit the population growth because Planet Earth will not tolerate excesses. So I call on the Church to take a leadership role in giving every Filipino a chance to have a very good quality of life. I call on government leaders to implement and impose harsh penalty for violators. I call on the academia to further educate the disenfranchised. And, lastly, I call on parents to guide and respect and educate the children to be more responsible. Reckless disregard to overpopulation is hazardous, and not humane.
