John Paraiso

Posted on 08. Dec, 2009 by John Paraiso in Oplan Pepe

It was just fortunate for me to be invited by a friend to attend a razzmatazz sponsored by Pro-Life Philippines in St. Peter’s Parish in Fairview, Quezon City three years ago. I went there hoping to be enlightened about the issues on abortion; instead what I saw was an exciting and complex play intended to confuse (dazzle) the public.

I was surprised that the whole shebang was not even a dialogue but propaganda, run by the Roman Catholic church to ban the artificial birth control method and family planning. AY NAKU PO! Not again! There were even some foreign guests (I think from Canada) who talked about Philippine poverty, saying it must not be blamed on population growth. Now here we have aliens from another land who in a mere instant knew what was best for Filipino society. MY PAPAYA!

Fortunately I got some distributed literature which showed what this was all about. The article seemed to be a letter intended to be given to the Philippine Congress, urging our respective Congressmen not to support some bills regarding:

• The Reproductive Health Bill
• Anti-Discrimination Act
• Integrated Population Management and Development Bill
• Divorce Bill
• Patients Rights Bill
• Anti-Terrorism Bill (?)
• Philippine Mining Act

And even the issue on Charter Change. Wait a minute there… I thought this is about the life of a child. Why are we dancing the cha-cha in here?

Now since this is a “Pro-Life” issue, I will just tackle the issue concerning Pro-Life. I’ll leave the issue of Anti-Terrorism and the Philippine Mining Act in a more “political” atmosphere.

According to this article, they claim that the cause of poverty is not overpopulation and the solution is not the use of contraceptives. Guess again? Well for your information, over-population is one of the causes of poverty and these entertainers are just keeping their eyes closed on the issue. Well some may use China as an example to justify over-population but let us examine the claim: We know that China is a very large country by territory compared to the itsy-bitsy group of islands called the Philippines.

So what’s the problem? Even with a billion in population, China can still manage their resources and their per capita income, compared to the Philippines. But why go to China if we can talk about reality in our own backyard?

Now the clamors in the issue about the Reproductive Health Bill are not even realistic. Maybe if we’re still living in the time of President Marcos, there is an issue. But today President Arroyo seems too hesitant to enforce the bill. Takot kasi si Ma’am sa simbahan eh.

The church still insists that the use of artificial contraceptives is immoral. Well think about this — there are thousands of sperm cells that leave a male body during coitus. Of the thousands, only one is needed to fertilized the egg cell. Now do you consider it murder, what happened to the unused sperm? It just doesn’t make sense. Here the Roman Catholics are into the sacredness of the sperm cell yet they don’t care about the child. A little common sense can shed some light on this matter. Just observe families around you and you’ll notice that most families that are a little well off have only 2 to 3 children, yet most families that live in depressed areas have a factory of kids. Most family whose parents have some college education insist on having few children with an interval of birth between 3 to 5 years, whereas family who only have an educational attainment of grade school have children as much as a dozen whose birth intervals can be compared to a stairway – every year mayroong birthday – WOAH!

And what happened with these children? Well maybe the staffs from Pro-Life Philippines should have a tour of Recto to Luneta at 1 to 4 AM and count the number of children sleeping in the streets, or sniffing rubber cement for dinner or breakfast. Now, I’m just thinking, these Catholic priests and their cahoots (like Pro-Life Philippines) preach to their adherents that it is a blessing to have many children, but where are they when these children , without the proper guidance of their parents, are now living in the streets, doing petty jobs just to survive or even worse, end up criminals? What is more moral, to save your so-called sacred sperm or to spare a life on misery because of tradition, superstition and ignorance?

Now on another issue, according to Pro-Life Philippines you mustn’t teach sex education to a 10-year old child. Hahaha! Now there is this speaker that says sex is God-given and will just go on naturally. Maybe if you’re still living in 18th century Europe, this is applicable. Before you talk, you have to consider the kind of environment you are living in. Just walk along the streets of Santa Cruz to Divisoria and you’ll be surprised how pornographic DVDs and VCDs are being sold in the streets like fishballs. AHA! And their packages are just lying there for the children to see. Pictures of a 12-year old child without any underpants being molested by a full-grown, pot bellied jerk old enough to be her daddy. Now what is more disgusting is to see this colored VCD label being held by a 7-year old grade school pupil from a nearby elementary school. Or how about this: a porno magazine that can rival Larry Flynn’s Hustler Magazine disguised as tabloids littering the streets of Manila. They’re only worth 15 pesos and can be bought by the average Filipino student. And let us not forget how pornography is now very easily downloaded from the internet and those novelties, double-meaning songs and some rap music being played by the radio, like this song about a lady’s rump. Last but not the least, TV shows and movies that suggestively displays men “beating their meat.”

So by not teaching your child about sex education, a craftier teacher is just waiting outside the gates of your house.

A recent study conducted by the Asian Development Bank, found the main cause of poverty in the Philippines to be:

• Weak macro-economics management
• High unemployment
• High population growth
• Weak agricultural production
• High corruption and weak governance
• Insurgency and violence
• Physical disability

Notice that high population growth is included in the list. A friend of mine once said, “Do you notice that most countries with a high Roman Catholic influence seem never to progress?” I sometimes wonder if population issue is one of the causes.

According to government statistics, three Filipinos are born every minute. That’s 160 Filipinos born every hour; 4,320 every day; 129,600 every month or 1,522,800 new Filipino to feed. Without proper care and guidance, more than half of these new Filipinos will be like animals in the streets of our major cities. Another new batch of “blessed is the poor and the meek and the sinners, etc. etc. etc.”

Until today, the Roman Catholic stand is that the world is not overpopulated and that overpopulation is not the cause of poverty. But what do they know? Naturally, these “men of God” have always relied on fantasy. But reality is very hard to swallow. Just go to Quapo in Manila and see the number of street children that littered the pavement near the church gates. Children without clothes, whose bellies are bloated with parasites, beggars for money. These street children soon become teenagers, without the proper guidance of poor parents, becoming hold-uppers and pick-pockets on Quiapo’s busy intersections. Is this what the Roman Church mean by fixing the poverty problem? As the famed Filipino author, F. Sionil Jose said in an article in Business World in 1997:

The country’s massive problems, basically created by Marcos and an irresponsible elite would faze any miracle worker. First, there is the tremendous population growth – three percent annually, the highest in Asia; almost all the economic gains are eaten up by it. Fueling it is the Catholic Church insisting on doctrinal purity, opposing birth control programs.

Pro-Life Philippines are now telling the audience that the solution is more jobs and to produce more food for the masses. Wait a minute? More food? Or is it more mouths to feed? Which is which? Just make a simple stroll in the streets of Manila and you can see children digging for leftovers in the garbage dumps, a site never heard off 20 years ago. Today the streets of South Harbor in Manila is littered with families living in the streets. Ano ba kayo? Nagbubulagbulagan ba kayo?

The equation is quite simple. Our planet is in a balance. Too many mouths to feed means an over use of natural resources. There is no magic here! For our resources to replenish, it will need time. But our population is too fast for our resources to catch up. Soon population will outrun the resources. It’s that simple. Just take a good look on experiments concerning the rabbit population problem in the United State and Australia. If the resources dwindle, nature will take its course. The situation is uglier compared to the artificial birth control method, when disease due to malnutrition would take its course to control the population.

If this continues, instead of eternal salvation, the Roman Church will be responsible for the eternal starvation of the Filipino.

[Photo by Jonathan McIntosh]

Tags: confession, essay, featured