Last June, 2011, a blog written by James Cordova pointed out a perspective about the Reproductive Health Bill being a means of population control. He claims that population is not the issue when it comes to poverty because it is not the lack of resources that is causing the problem; rather, it is the improper allocation of resources that is the cause of povery.
According to those who are pushing for the RH bill, we need the RH law in order to arrest the population growth of the country, a growth that is the alleged cause of the poverty that is pervasive in the Philippines. The premise of this argument – that the Philippines is poor because it has too many mouths to feed – is contentious, if not flat-out wrong.
Poverty in the Philippines is never about limited resources; it is always about who controls these resources. While it is true that cutting down the number of Filipinos would obviously mean lesser mouths to feed, the population control agenda does not address the root cause of the poverty, which is the control by the few of the country’s vast and rich resources.
The political economy of the Philippines is defined by the presence during the past century of foreign multinational and transnational corporations that turn vast tracts of land into their own plantations and fiefdoms, siphoning off profits at the expense of local communities. While this political economy has somehow evolved and changed over the decades, its main feature remains constant — a few controls the economy while the majority toil in poverty, low wages and landlessness.
I disagree with Cordova’s opinion in disregarding overpopulation as a factor in poverty. That reason why I disagree with him is because one cannot deny that the reason why some families are so poor is because they have too many mouths to feed. Technically, one person living off a jeepney driver’s salary will be able to survive without too much hardship. The reason why he can barely get by is because he has half a dozen mouths to feed. Now, I’m not saying that the number of people in this country is the reason why we can’t rise above poverty but one certainly cannot simply disregard it and say it isn’t important.
Cordova, however, did have some interesting points in his blog about the R.H. Bill is not supposed to be the sole solution to overpopulation because people should explore the possibility that there are other answers to poverty out there.
The population control agenda assumes that the state has done everything else it could to alleviate poverty, such as improving wages, providing jobs, providing basic services such as health care, among other needs. The truth is, it hasn’t. On the issue of wages alone, the government has toed the line of employers and big business, refusing to increase wages.
I am in favor of the RH bill only in so far as it recognizes and respects the right of the Filipino, particularly the women, to basic services, to an informed choice.
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