PHNO-OPINION: BULLETIN: POPULATION AND THE PRESIDENT's 3rd SONA

BULLETIN: POPULATION AND THE PRESIDENT's 3rd
SONA

MANILA, JULY 3, 2012
(BULLETIN) Chaff from the Grain By FORMER PRESS SECRETARY
HECTOR R.R. VILLANUEVA - ("Success is relative: It
is what we can make of the mess we have made of things." — T.S. Eliot)
When we stand too close to the trees, we cannot see the forest, and
beyond.
When we get mired in the humdrum business of daily living, mundane
matters, parochial concerns, obsessive politics, and materialist motives, the
pursuit of vision and glory, which every nation and people aspire for, tends to
fade away into the backburner consciousness of people.
Be that as it may, as President Benigno Simeon Aquino III delivers
his Third SONA on his accomplishments in the last two years focusing on his
triumph against corruption with the impeachment and ouster of Chief Justice
Renato Corona and the detention of former President Gloria Arroyo, higher GDP
and impressive agricultural gains made, President Aquino is reminded that the
Philippines can be the idyllic and a better place to live in, and assuredly more
fun if only there were not so many underage, underfed, uneducated, and
unemployed Filipinos.
It can be surmised that the achievements of the administration, according to
President Aquino, such as the poverty-mitigating Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT)
scheme, the campaign against smugglers and tax evaders, PNP's claim of lower
crime index, increasing foreign investments, enhanced public works activities,
and work-in-progress on the peace negotiations with Islamist and communist
insurgents, are credible and validated.
On the other hand, these accomplishments must be taken pari-passu (sic:
without partiality) in the context of television's constant assault on the
senses with the escalating culture of violence, kidnapping, carnapping, human
trafficking, drug addiction, mounting HIV cases, robberies, and crimes against
property.
In both circumstances – positive government accomplishments and
deteriorating law and order environment – the common thread is the burgeoning
population explosion that has ballooned from under 20 million 50 years ago to 90
million, and counting.
The finger of suspicion and malaise narrows down to population congestion.

Meanwhile in the process of feeding and employing this growing demographic
crisis, the pristine rain forests are gone, the lovely coral reefs are dead, and
the marine aquatic resources and fishing grounds are depleted.
Hence, unabated population growth is the common malaise of the many problems
facing the nation.
As noted, countries, whether with large landmass or modest manageable
population, such as Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong,
Singapore, Vietnam, and others have all succeeded in containing or decelerating
their population growth and birth rate, except the Philippines.
The passage of the RH Bill into law is a good start.
The passage of the reproductive health bill will not only be a lasting legacy
of President Benigno Aquino but will also be a historic breakthrough in the
secularization of the State from the influence of religious groups.
Moreover, a declining population will restore the equilibrium between what we
are capable of producing, and what we reproduce.
The RH bill is a conflict between modernism and medieval religious hangovers.

You be the judge



Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
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rights reserved




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