It is quite ironic that for a country that gave the world “People Power”, so many RH advocates are so willing to push the passage of the RH bill primarily to stem the tide of “runaway population growth”, to borrow their own term. How easily these RH proponents forget the lessons of the past: that we were able to overthrow a dictator by our numbers. People Power. Power from the People, and of the People.
Alas, how easily these RH pushers forget. They wish to lessen the number of people.
Half-Truths No Better than a Lie
To prove their point about population control, RH proponents would always cite this piece of statistic: 94 million Filipinos, 12th in the world in terms of population. If we base our judgment from this statistic alone, then we would really conclude that population control is necessary and desirable. However, for one to quote this statistic without mentioning the other aspects of demographics is to sell a half-truth whic h is almost no different nor better than a lie.
There are other factors to consider in analyzing a population, namely: Population Density, Population Growth Rate, and Total Fertility Rate.
Population Density refers to how many people you can fit inside given space, most commonly a square kilometer. Population Density tells you that population is relative primarily to the space it occupies; e.g. 50 people occupying a whole mall is not the same scenario as 50 people occupying a small bus. The former tells you that there’s still a lot of space left for more people, the latter tells you the opposite. This is Population Density. It does not only tell you how many people do we have, but how much living space we still have.
Our population density is easily googable: 312 people per km2, 45th in the world. However, the City of Manila is dubious for being the most densely populated city in the world, with more than 27,000 people fitting in a km2. These numbers now give you the realsituation happening in our country; no overpopulation, just an overcrowding in Manila.
Population Growth Rate refers to the annual growth of the population each year. According to both the CIA World Factbook and Indexmundi, our growth rate is at 1.90%. If you ask the World Bank, it’s 1.7%, down from 3.4% in the 60s. Clearly, the population growth rate is going down – without the need of an RH bill.
2.1 Babies
Total Fertility Rate is the average number of babies women are having in a society. This tells you whether their society is having enough babies to replace the older generation. The passing grade here is 2.1 babies – or 21 babies per 100 women, and is also called the Replacement Rate. Any lower than that and you will have a shortage of manpower to replace the old generation of workers, and many countries suffering from this scourge either use immigrants to fill the void, raise the retirement age, or both. However, for developing countries like ours, the Replacement Rate is higher, around 2.4 or 2.5.
The Philippines’ TFR is at 3.19 children per woman. According to the RH bill, the ideal number of children is 2. Since when did the government exert so much control over our lives that it has the gall to determine the ‘ideal’ number of children?
Invest in Filipinos
This has been the case for us echoing the voices of the three youths (Kiboy Tabada, Eileen Esteban, and Peter Pardo) who went to Cebu in order to strengthen the Pro-Life and anti-RH stand of the Cebuanos: Invest in people. Our dear lawmakers, invest in Filipinos. These babies born now may be mouths to feed but they will be excellent workers who will do the country proud in the future, if we play our cards right.
Invest in the Filipino – for he holds the power to propel this country to a better future.
Posted June 8, 2012
Pro-Life Philippines
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