A little less of everything

PART II
[EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a series of three award-winning columns of Rene B. Bartolo on population. The articles, first published in Mr. Bartolo’s Richochet column in The Mindanao Times, the city’s oldest newspaper, won first prize in the POPDev Media Awards bestowed by the Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development, for three consecutive years, installing the columnist in the hall of fame.]
At 32, Kaloy has six children – a boy and five girls. Two of his children are in school this year; he rotates their education yearly to save on costs. His wife is, again, in the family way.
“You and your wife should go easy on child-bearing,” I told him once. “Yes, sir,” he answered laconically. When I learned his wife was pregnant, I told him again. “I thought you had decided to refrain from having another child.” He bit his lip and said nothing.
Kaloy is scared of the expected cost of childbirth and of the prospect of another mouth to feed. “Unsaon pag pugong nga mabuntis si Misis, sir?”  (How can I prevent my wife from getting pregnant?)
Kaloy is a Catholic. His predicament is shared by 76 million Catholics in the country.
The war is on against any attempt by government to slow down population growth, like the proposed “Two-Child” policy. The war is waged from the pulpits all over the nation. I had my taste of that war last Sunday.
The policy, should it ever become law, is more an apology than an answer to the growing population problem. It will be a law that does not compel but cajole. What for is a toothless law?
President Gloria Arroyo, for all her pronouncements to curb population growth, will not cross the Catholic Church. The church was actively behind the unseating of two presidents – Ferdinand Marcos and Joseph Estrada. Arroyo herself was a beneficiary of the awesome power that the Catholic Church wields.
In August 1999, Congressman Roy Padilla Jr. authored a legislative proposal which sought to legalize abortion in special cases: pregnancies resulting from rape or incest; where the mother’s life was endangered by the continued pregnancy; and where the fetus was determined to be defective even while inside the womb. The Catholic Church immediately rose in arms against House Bill No. 6343, and the Padilla bill was never heard of again.
Manny Arejola, head of the church-based NGO “Sanctity of Life”, boasted in 2005: “Over the past three years our lobby has managed to stop more than 30 ‘anti-life’ bills from passage into law. These included legislation aimed at legalizing divorce, bills making the morning-after pill available, and attempts to push a diet of ‘hedonism’ (meaning, sex education) on school children.”
The government cannot expect the Catholic Church to change its posture which is sculpted by edicts fashioned in the corridors of the Vatican. But it can change its own posture and perspective vis-à-vis the church – from endless accommodation and outright subservience to one of reasoned and relentless pursuit of public welfare.
Both the government and the church should re-engineer their relationship on the Constitutional provision of the Separation of Church and State. The role of the State is general – ensuring public good and improving the quality of life of the Filipino. The role of the Church is promoting the faith and saving the souls of the flock.
Kaloy D. is at a loss. The 100 pesos he earns daily is barely enough to feed his growing family. The cheapest rice is 24 pesos a kilo; the cheapest fish is 60 pesos; house rental, light and water total to 35 pesos. Medicines and clothing are on hold, and so are the other little things that could lend quality to the life his family lives.
He realizes that the coming of the 7th child would mean an additional burden to him and his wife, and the children that came ahead.
For the other six children, there will be a little less food, a little less clothing, a little less medicine, a little less chance for education, a little less future, a little less hope.
In the summation of things, it will mean a little less of everything. [Published: July 23, 2007] To be continued