7/31/2019 Vote No to RH Bill (Bernardo M Villegas PhD)

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Vote No to RH BillBernardo M. Villegas, Ph.D.

In the unlikely event that the RH Bill will be finallybe put to a vote in the House of Representatives

before the current session is over, every member ofCongress should vote a resounding

NO TO THE RH BILL.

A law based on the assumption of the desirability of birth or population control ispure economic nonsense when all the kudos and praises being heaped on the Philippineeconomy by international organizations both governmental and private are citing theadvantages of a growing and young population. A recent report from Bloomberg (one ofthe leading business news agencies) was just headlined "Philippines Leads In Demo-graphic Dividend Of Supply of Young Workers."

The very bullish article about the Philippines just echoing many others that have

come out since the beginning of the current year pointed out that the so-called demo-graphic dividend from a rising supply of young workers is one reason Japan's second-largest shipbuilder expanded in the Philippines, where workers are on average half theage of its Japanese employees.

Chua Hak Bin, an economist in Singapore at Bank of America's Merrill Lynch di-vision agrees: "The Philippines is a 'standout' among countries set to benefit from a big-ger labor labor pool, with its rate of economic expansion likely to rise as much as 1.5percentage points higher during the next decade."

Passing the RH Bill would literally be killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.Already China and Thailand still with relatively large populations are suffering from

labor shortages because of the rapid aging of their populations over the last decade orso. Such a negative demographic trend can be traced to very aggressive birth controlprograms that were based on artificial contraceptives and, in the case of China, on coer-cion and abortion.

China and Thailand may be the first important countries in the history of humanityto grow old before becoming rich. They clearly illustrate the folly of a population man-agement program that always leads to the unintended effect of cutting fertility rates toabnormally low levels which have very deleterious effects on the national economy.

The Philippines does not need any population management program because itsfertility rate is already rapidly falling. Within a generation, the fertility rate of the Phil-

ippines will be at below-replacement level of 2.1 babies per fertile woman. Today, thanksto a large population, the Philippines is one of the few countries whose GDP still grow-ing at 6 per cent or more because its businesses can sell to a lucrative domestic marketeven as exports suffer a dramatic slowdown. In contrast, territories with small popula-tions like Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong will suffer from very slow or no economicgrowth this year because of their heavy dependence on exports.

If Congress passes the RH Bill, they will plant the seed of a contraceptive mentalityamong married couples, as has happened in all the Northeast Asian countries who are

7/31/2019 Vote No to RH Bill (Bernardo M Villegas PhD)

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now suffering from a severe "demographic winter." We must find some ways of eradi-cating poverty, building more classrooms, and reducing maternal and child mortalitieswithout nurturing a very counterproductive contraceptive culture in Philippine society.

Besides economic science, there are other sciences that can demonstrate that theRH Bill, if passed, will do more harm than good. Certain types of contraceptive pills (not

all ) can kill babies.

Because medical science has demonstrated that human life begins at fertilization,certain "abortifacient" pills kill human life because they act on the human embryo afterfertilization. The American Journal of Obstretics and Gynecology pronounced that theIUD (intrauterine device) brings about the destruction of the early embryo (187: 1699-1708).

Furthermore, the International Agency for Research on Cancer reported in 2007that the contraceptive pill causes cancer, giving it the highest level of carcinogenicity, thesame as cigarettes and asbestos. According to a publication of the American Heart As-sociation (33: 1202 1208), pills also cause stroke, and significantly increase the risk of

heart attacks.

In the social sciences, there are findings that the contraceptive lifestyle destroys thevery foundation of society, the family. According to Nobel prize winner George Aker-lof, who combines the study of economics and psychology, contraceptives tend to de-grade marriage and lead to more extramarital sex, more fatherless children, more singlemothers and more psychologically troubled adolescents. His findings are purely empiri-cal in nature and have no moral undertones.

Also, contrary to the claims of the proponents of the RH Bill, condoms promotethe spread of AIDS. Harvard Director of AIDS Prevention, Edward C. Green, oncewrote that according to the best evidence available, condoms give a false sense of secu-

rity and prompt people to be more reckless in assuming sexual risks, thus worsening thespread of the sexually transmitted diseases. Thailand, that has the highest incidence ofAIDS-HIV in East Asia, could be cited as a testimony to this.

Obviously, the best thing that can happen on August 7 is for the majority of themembers of the House of Representatives to vote against stopping the period of interpel-lation. As the ongoing global crisis unfolds, there are more and more arguments thatcan be mustered against the proponents of the RH Bill. These up-to-date findings de-serve to be aired in the floor debates. There is an estimate that some 80 members of theHouse of Representatives have not made up their minds about the pros and cons of theRH Bill. They still need to be enlightened. If the majority of the House, however,should decide otherwise, i.e. that it is time to put to vote this contentious and very con-

troversial bill that is unnecessarily dividing the country during a crucial moment of ournational life, then let every one who is really thinking of the common good of Philip-pine society vote NO TO THE RH BILL.

For comments, my email address is bernardo.villegas@uap.asia