This is in response to the letter of Risa Hontiveros in the Jan. 16
issue of the Inquirer, where she lamented our fast growing population and asked for the implementation of the Reproductive Health Law.
I think we should be happy that one-tenth of our population consists of overseas Filipino workers who help significantly to prop up our economy. We should also be happy that we owe our healthy consumer-driven economy to our young population. Look how Indonesia credits its booming economy to its young population.
Watch the ailing economies of developed countries. They prove the hard reality that population decline equals economic decline.
The headline of this paper’s Jan. 16 issue on government corruption clearly echoes the Asian Development Bank’s report that for every P10 our government spends, at least P3 goes to corruption. Imagine if stolen money went to education and healthcare.
The government is doing enough to control population growth even without the RH Law’s implementation. I have difficulty gathering young mothers to
attend Natural Family Planning seminars because most of them in developing communities have been ligated without their consent, after giving birth at the government’s Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital in Manila.
Also, three out of five women I talked to, who use artificial contraceptives, experience heavy bleeding monthly. This shows that abortifacient contraceptives go against our Constitution’s provision to protect life from conception.
—LELLA M. DE JESUS,
Mary Mother of Good
Counsel Parish,
Diocese of Parañaque, lellamdj@gmail.com