Feedback to "Managing population growth” (page 2, October 5, 2008, Manila Bulletin)

Dear Editor,

I am very happy to read a short info-mercial, entitled, "Managing population growth" (Page 2, Sunday, October 5, 2008, Manila Bulletin), that mentions the Commission on Population (POPCOM), "… in coordination with other agencies, leads the task of promoting natural family planning…"

At the same time, I am also very worried that the same write-up contains potentially misleading statements. These are the following:

1. The quotation attributed to POPCOM Executive Director Tomas M. Osias which states that "the larger the population, the greater is the demand for natural resources and manufactured goods and services, giving lesser time for our natural resources to regenerate and lesser time for production lines and service sectors to supply our basic needs."

It shows a very narrow-minded and partial correlation between population and use of natural resources and manufactured goods and services. Aside from population growth, there are other factors that must be considered such as unregulated economic activity, graft and corruption, poorly formulated and implemented public policies, etc. Blaming everything to a large population is dangerously misleading. Moreover, the statement is a hypothesis that is not supported by empirical data. A national agency that is expected to be manned by professionals should be careful in making assertions well supported by scientific evidence.

2. The statement " The decline in population growth will ease the demand for resources…"

This statement somehow tries to emphasize that declining population growth is desirable or a good thing for our country. This reflects the underlying assumption that people are just burdens; mouth that must be fed; not brains and pairs of hands that could be innovators, inventors, creators of new ideas and solutions. It shows an anti-life philosophy.

Instead of controlling population growth, I would suggest that POPCOM focuses their work on POPULATION REDISTRIBUTION. They should formulate and propose demographic policies, among other things, that would encourage the formation or establishment of secondary urban centers in order to decongest the major cities like Metro Manila and Metro Cebu. These policies should also include recommendations to improve public transportation like the railways and roll-on-roll-off (RORO) ports.

I wish also to suggest that POPCOM revises the underlying philosophy of their work. They should consider the idea that people are potential resources, not problems. They are potential dollar-earners. They are potential inventors, creators of new wealth, and discoverers of new resources or discoverers of new uses of existing or known resources. In this perspective, population growth is a welcome phenomenon. What will be required from POPCOM and other government agencies are ideas and proposals to develop and harness these potential human resources.

"The state has a responsibility for its citizens' well-being. In this capacity it is legitimate for it to intervene to orient the demography of the population. This can be done by means of objective and respectful information, but certainly not by authoritarian, coercive measures. The state may not legitimately usurp the initiative of spouses, who have the primary responsibility for the procreation and education of their children. In this area, it is not authorized to employ means contrary to the moral law." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, number 2372)

"Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts." (Cf. Psalm 95:7-8)

On Australian blogger Brian Gorrell

Dear Editor,

I read several articles in Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) on the Australian blogger Brian Gorrell.

I became curious of what PDI wrote about him. I logged on to the internet and searched his blog.

I was shocked by what I read! Can his allegations be true?

Questions came up to my mind: Is injuring people's reputation a fair revenge for allegedly being swindled of one's hard-earned $70,000 material wealth? Are people's reputation less valuable than money?

I am also saddened by the readers' comments that mostly accepted the allegations as true. But it seems that the charges have not been proven beyond reasonable doubt. In ethics books, it says that one ought not to assume as true, even tacitly, without sufficient foundation, the moral fault of another person. If one does, one is guilty of RASH JUDGMENT and injures, in one's mind, the reputation of the other person. Reading the comments, it appears that so many rash judgments have been committed. How easily people believe on negative things about people!

Even if Mr. Gorrell's allegations are true, one ought not to disclose, without objectively valid reason, people's faults and failings to the unsuspecting public. There is such a thing as DETRACTION, wherein, a person's reputation is injured by exposing his faults and failings to those who do not know them.

Much worse, if the allegations are false. It is CALUMNY, a grave injustice to innocent people.

As one ethics book explains "detraction and calumny destroy the reputation and honor of one's neighbor. Honor is the social witness given to human dignity, and everyone enjoys a natural right to the honor of his name and reputation and to respect. Thus, detraction and calumny offend against the virtues of justice and charity." (CCC 2479)

Even if the offense to Brian Gorrell is true, he is still not blameless. He should know better. He should have placed things in writing. Even if they are best of friends, as he alleged.

We can also give Mr. Gorrell the benefit of the doubt that he mistakenly trusted the person too much. No one is perfect. But what is $70,000 to a guy who writes and takes picture well. He can earn it again. He should just leave to the Almighty God the retribution and justice he desires. After all, one cannot bring to one's grave one's riches.

The issue, then, here is reputation of persons against money. We cannot discount the possibility that there is blackmail being committed. It is saddening to realize that PDI is allowing itself to be used, for free, to a possible destruction of people's reputation.

Don't get me wrong. I do not know the people Brian Gorrell are "leaving under the sun to dry". I do not belong to the moneyed and propertied-social class. I just came to know about this through your PDI articles. I am not grateful to PDI for letting me know this. This is not worth the ink and newsprint paper PDI spends. It is a shame. It gives a bad after taste. Let the others do it, not PDI.

Thank you for your time and I hope PDI will think twice next time in assisting character assassination by featuring them, free of charge.

Note: This letter was published April 13, 2008. To read the online version, click HERE or copy and paste to the browser this link: http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/entertainment/entertainment/view/20080413-130043/Feedback

Reaction to "High birth rate = classroom lack"

The title of your article "High birth rate = classroom lack" (Published on page A2 of March 25, 2007 issue of Philippine Daily Inquirer) easily caught my attention. I immediately thought to myself, here they go again launching another campaign to convince the public that the source of our country's problem is our population!

God bless our president! Peace of mind came back to me when I read President Arroyo does not buy the argument of DepEd Secretary Lapus. She is aware of the strong position of the Catholic Church on the population issue.

Instead, she wants to encourage "high school students to take up vocational courses instead of going on to college", where chances of getting high wage jobs abound. Here is a hint to a real solution to our problem in our educational system.

Why not the government launch an incentive program such as scholarship grants for our young people to go to technical schools rather than to universities?

It is also mentioned in the article that "more than half of the 1.3 million senior high school students in both the public and private schools did not qualify for a college education". It appears now that government college scholarship programs favors a small portion of our high school graduates.

If the government subsidizes college education of a small fraction of our country's youth through state universities and colleges, particularly the University of the Philippines, why don't the government increases the programs that will subsidize the vocational training of our college-age youth? Besides, most of the "poorest of the poor" portion of the population are resigned on taking vocational courses.

There are a number of private technical schools that give quality technical training. The government can tap the expertise of these institutions by channeling the scholarship grants to them. No need to put up public technical schools.

One reason parents and the young themselves prefer college education instead of vocational courses is due to the low esteem of these courses. The government should also do something to raise the public perception on vocational courses. One way to do that is to increase the number of slots of full scholarships to vocational courses. Right now the slots available are so few, that very few people are aware of it.

If public perception on vocational courses is raised to a level that a students can be proud of it, some of the "cream of the crop" of our high school graduates will consider taking the vocational course path. It will further raise the public perception on vocational courses. A sort of "snowball effect" will occur.

I liked this short article. It made me think.