COVID-19 and the population problem

By Herbert Vego

 

YOU must have read various “conspiracy stories” calling the COVID-19 pandemic a “biological weapon”. One says that the coronavirus was “man-made in China, aimed at subjugating the world.”

Another pinpoints American billionaire Bill Gates as a “conspirator” who stands to profit from the virus. He has put up a $300 million fund to find a vaccine against the coronavirus, which – if successful — would further boost his image as the richest man in the world.

Opponents of the project, however, warn of hidden agenda. For example, the Conference of Catholic Bishops in Kenya sees it as “a disguised population control program.” They fear that the vaccines would be laced with a hormone that would cause repeated miscarriages and eventual sterility.

While that fear remains without a factual basis, it is no secret that the Bill and Belinda Gates Foundation is a supporter of family-planning organizations worldwide.

This writer may not agree with vaccination as the ultimate solution to the COVID problem, but I believe that the pandemic-triggered lockdowns that have bankrupted employers and rendered their employees unemployed are among the valid reason why we Filipinos must prioritize population control.

The Philippines, though a mere dot on the map, has now the 12th largest population in the world, with close to 110 million inhabitants.

One wonders whether the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Law (RA 10354) that guarantees universal access to birth control (subsidized and/or free for the poor) has achieved its purpose of lowering birth rates. Incidentally, now ongoing is the 2020 census on population being undertaken by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

Birth control has become more critical now that Filipino laborers abroad who are losing employment due to the COVID-19 crisis are coming home to struggle for survival.

A study by the Population Commission reveals that If our growth rate stays at 2.3% annually, our population would hit 118 million in 2025.

Unfortunately, the Catholic Church opposes RA 10354, calling the law “pro-abortion, anti-life.”

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), has attacked the law. Its statement reads in part, “It’s not the population that is the problem. It’s the great disparity of wealth. If the wealthy would share what they have, then population would not be a problem.”

Ironically, other predominantly Catholic countries like Portugal, Spain, Italy and Poland control their birth rates despite the clergy’s admonition to the faithful to refrain from using church-banned contraceptives.

That admonition is easier heard than followed. It is a myopic way of defending an undesirable situation where a poor couple makes more children than they can afford to feed and send to school. Malnourished and uneducated, as present-day Philippine reality shows, these unplanned children — assuming they survive hunger and hostile environment — grow up to be thieves, robbers, prostitutes, and even killers for hire in order to survive. It’s a vicious cycle being passed on to future generations.

Doesn’t even common sense tells us that a worker making barely enough bread for himself is unfit to marry and multiply? The new couple becomes a burden, not an asset, to society.

Conversely and ironically, it is the rich in the Philippines who limit the number of their children to two or three to ensure their good future.

By the way, how was life in the Philippines in the good old days when population density was small?

I found the answer in one of my prized possessions, an English translation of an 1853 book, Adventures of a Frenchman in the Philippines by Paul P. de la Gironiere. A chapter in the book cites Pasig River as a health-rejuvenating body of water where the rich Spanish, English, Chinese and various mestizos paraded on boats and gondolas.

In that chapter, the author depicted a scene we no longer see today: “The newest and most elegant houses are built upon the banks of the river Pasig. Each house has a landing place from the river and little bamboo palaces serving as bathing houses to which the residents resort several times daily, to relieve the fatigue caused by intense heat.”

We can only see the same clean bodies of water today in sparsely populated rural riverbanks.

-oOo-

HERE’S an important notice from MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) to  all power users in Iloilo City:

It’s no joke serving an initial customer base of 65,000 commercial and residential electrical connections.

To facilitate transactions with them and new applicants, MORE Power has gone on-line, allowing customers to stay at home with their personal computers, laptops or cellular phones. It is accessible through www.morepower.com.ph

The website contains downloadable application, billing and payment forms.

Hotline cellular and landline numbers are also accessible 24/7. They are 0917-637-5214, 0919-072-0626, 327-2985, and 323-6619.

Updated news and information materials are also within reach via the Facebook page MORE Power Iloilo.