A Forum with 3 Congressmen, an Economist, and a Historian (Part II)

Here is the second part of my blogs on an RH Bill Forum which I attended on December 3, 2011 at the Sarangani Study Center. Part I was about Congresswoman Aliah Dimaporo's testimonies and comments on the proposed RH legislation as a lawmaker, as a Muslim, and as a youth or member of 9YL (to see blog on Part I, click HERE).

Dr. Bernardo M. Villegas gave talk on the "Positive Dimension on Population Growth". He serves as the Senior Vice President and as the Dean of the School of Economics of the University of Asia and the Pacific. As I googled him, I found that Dr. Villegas holds a Ph.D. in Economics and M.A. in Economics from the Harvard University [1]. He was a member of the Constitutional Commission that drafted the 1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines.

Japan's Demographic winter

Talking about Japan's decline in birth rate and its aging population, Dr. Villegas said, "Japan is the worst sufferer of demographic winter." Even the Statistics Bureau of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of the government of Japan admits that their percentage of elderly in the population is the highest in the world [2]. The significance of this is that after a few years time, these old people will retire or even be dead, the population will decrease, and there will not be enough people to sustain their labor force.

Positive Dimension of Population Growth

With an expert's tone, Dr. Villegas said that the countries that are partly immune [to economic crises] are the countries with large population. "China, India, Indonesia and the Philippines are some of the [only] countries with positive dimension in population growth." Even though the sponsors and lobbyists say that it is just a health measure, the economist believes that this RH Bill is a population control bill!

Of Myth and Superstition

The belief that "overpopulation" causes poverty holds no statistical proof and is lacking of scientific evidence. This erroneous myth which was first proposed by Thomas Malthus in 1798 was also taken up by Paul Ehrlich in 1968. "The first priest of superstition was Thomas Malthus," the economist asserted. "That theory [that the world will soon be out of food because of rapid population growth] was the laughing stock of economists and scientists!"


Watch Overpopulation: The Making of a Myth video, prepared by the Population Research Institute [3].

"Why are there poor people? It's because of human stupidity and corruption," said Dr. Villegas. If only we use the full potential of the human person, give opportunities for growth and development, stop corruption and greed, then we might, as a nation, progress.

The second superstition is that the world will run out of fuel because there will be no more trees to cut. RH Bill lobbyists would always point to the myth of overpopulation as the root cause of this superstitious belief. In times past, man used wood as the main source of energy. And then man had coal. Next, man discovered petroleum. Then, electricity. With the onslaught of these discoveries, this superstition should not be tolerated anymore. "There is a move all over the world to use oil less and less. There is solar, wind, biofuels, etc. We are now entering the bio-engineering era," quoted Dr. Villegas, emphasizing on the unlimited ability of the human mind to discover technology.

Nobel Laureates and Economists

Nobel Prize winners in Economic Sciences Gary Becker (1992) and Simon Kuznets (1971) could attest that population growth stimulates no development. "They [population growth and economic development] have zero correlation," said Dr. Villegas.

Dr. Mahbub ul Haq, Father of Human Development Index and Former Prime Minister of Planning and Finance in Pakistan, regretted spending resources on population control to no effect. He once said, "If we could start again, I would invest almost everything in literacy for women."

Dr. Robert Barro (1991), who conducted a study of 98 countries for 30 years have found out that growth rate of real per capita GDP is positively related to school enrollment rates. Countries with higher human capital also have lower fertility rates.

The Roots of Philippines Mass Poverty

Part of Dr. Villegas's talk was a discussion on Philippine Mass Poverty. In his presentation which I took a hold of [4], the roots of mass poverty in the Philippines are listed below:

              1. Errors in economic policy

                  - inward looking industrialization

                  - neglect of export promotion

                  - underdeveloped agriculture sector

                  - lack of infrastructures

              2. Poor governance

                  - loss of P200 billion annually through tax evasion

              3. Corruption

                  - loss of P200 billion through misappropriation of funds

Oxymoron

The term "reproductive health" is an oxymoron. It does not bring health, and it does not bring reproduction.





Related Blogs
RH Bill Forum 1: A Forum with Senator Tatad
RH Bill Forum 2: A Forum with 3 Congressmen, an Economist, and a Historian (Part I)

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[1]  http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=1105543&ticker=BC:PM&previousCapId=874170&previousTitle=TATA%20STEEL%20LTD  accessed December 23, 2011

[2] http://www.stat.go.jp/english/data/handbook/c02cont.htm#cha2_2 accessed December 23, 2011

[3] Founded in 1989, the Population Research Institute is a non-profit research and educational organization dedicated to objectively presenting the truth about population-related issues, and to reversing the trends brought about by the myth of overpopulation. See http://www.pop.org/

[4] http://issuu.com/uap-cco/docs/population_and_development_in_the_philippines.ppt accessed December  29, 2011

A Forum with 3 Congressmen, an Economist, and a Historian (Part I)

It was December 3, 2011 when I attended the RH Bill Forum 2 at the Sarangani Study Center, Dos Castillas St., Sampaloc, Manila. (Click on link to see my blog on RH Bill Forum 1) I and the other attendees were blessed with the presence of Rep. Fatima Aliah Dimaporo (2nd District of Lanao del Norte), Rep. Mariano Michael Velarde, Jr. (BUHAY Party List), Rep. Victorino Dennis Socrates (2nd District of Palawan), Dr. Bernardo Villegas, and Dr. Raul Nidoy, as forum presentors and panel reactors.

Rep. Dimaporo presented the Economic Implications of the RH Bill (9YL Stand). She stated that the initial budget allotted for the RH Bill in the Appropriations was Php 3 Billion. However, she pointed out that deliberations in Congress had revealed it was not just Php 3 Billion but Php 13 Billion of taxpayers' money!

She expressed her belief that the proposed budget for the RH Bill could better be used in solving the real causes of poverty: the poor's lack of access to education and employment or livelihood opportunities. "We do have a lack of classrooms. We do have a lack of teachers. Many of our farmers are industrious on their own. But they are not supported [by the government] with farm-to-market infrastructures," the young congresswoman said.

"The problem with the Philippines is that we do not have the policy to absorb the new would-be members of the labor force," the legislator from Lanao del Norte added. She deeply emphasized that the RH Bill does not center on the Filipino's progress and that taxpayers' money should not be used on contraceptives or other RH services or proposals.

Additional trivia was provided by Rep. Dimaporo when she said that the term "population control" did not pass [in] the United Nations, but they [population control pushers] changed it to the term "reproductive health" with the same definition, for marketing purposes.

When asked about Islam and the Muslim community, "It is black and white from the Holy Qur'an that contraception is not okay," the Muslim congresswoman shared. "There are Muslim countries who have supported RH, but the Holy Qur'an is black and white on that," she further clarified.


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See more on Islam Against RH Bill HERE

(9YL is a coalition of nine young legislators coming from the three major geographical areas of the Philippines: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. As Atty. Jose C. Sison of The Philippine Star put it in his article The Filipino Youth's plea, the 9YL, though young, seem to already have that "wisdom of the ages".)