Catherine San Juan writes that the Reproductive Health (RH) bill “won’t solve poverty and it never will.” (Inquirer, 10/19/09) She cites no scientific study for her claim, but reveals her true reason that the bill “is simply designed to make unrestrained sex safe from the risk of unwanted pregnancy,” an argumentum ad hominem and a personal insult to responsible parents.

Yet there is such a study showing that an unrestrained population growth is a major reason for the Philippines falling behind other nations, particularly her Southeast Asian neighbors, in economic growth.

The Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania, in a study titled, “Philippines pays high price for unchecked population growth,” noted that “The Philippines’ move from being one of Asia’s brightest stars to one of fading glory (it has also been described as the ‘sick man’ … of the region) has often been attributed to its inability to curb its high population growth rate.”

APPC compared the Philippines and Thailand whose populations were almost the same in the 1950s. “By 1975, even their incomes, measured in per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP), were about even, despite the fact that a quarter of a century before that, the Philippines’ per capita income was just slightly lower than Japan’s.”

“Thailand has a higher per capita GDP now partly because its population, which used to be about the same as the Philippines, was 62 million as of the year 2000, compared to [RP’s] 75 million. Thailand’s total fertility rate (TFR) was down to 1.9 for the same year while Indonesia’s was 2.5. On the other hand, the Philippines, while registering an impressive 50 percent reduction in TFR, still had the highest rate of 3.6.”

In 2007, Thailand’s GDP per capita (purchasing power parity) was estimated at $8,400, while that of the Philippines was $3,200. Population below poverty line in Thailand is 10 percent; in the Philippines, it’s 40 percent, according to the CIA World Factbook.

Among selected Asian countries in 2001, according to the United Nations, the Philippines had the highest fertility rate at 3.3 percent; South Korea, 1.4; Malaysia, 2.9; Singapore, 1.4; Thailand, 1.8; Vietnam, 2.2; and Indonesia, 2.4. Countries with lower fertility rates have passed us by in economic growth.

—MANUEL F. ALMARIO
Spokesman, Movement
for Truth in History
mfalmario@yahoo.com