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Filipinos Face Potential Two-Child per Family Policy – Legislature Votes within 2 Weeks

By Terry Vanderheyden

MANILA, January 9, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In less than two weeks, one of the world’s most Catholic countries could face a mandatory two-child family limit. The Philippines parliament will vote January 16 on a controversial bill proposing the limit.

Disguised in clever language, HB 3773 is called “The Responsible Parenting and Population Control Act of 2005.” Elements of the bill include preference in education for two child families, free access to abortifacients, mandatory sex education for children as young as 10 years old and imprisonment penalties for health care providers who refuse to perform or provide sterilization services for a population that is 87% Catholic and 5% Muslim.

In November, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines called on Congress to quash 3773 in favour of a proposal by Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. She proposes using United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) money to promote church-approved, scientifically-based natural family planning; she also stressed that population is not the reason for poverty, as the UN claims.

Despite the Philippine constitution that protects human life from the moment of conception, the anti-life movement is making gains there. In the declassified 1974 US government document, National Security Study Memorandum 200, the Philippines was included in a list of countries whose population growth and consequent growth in prosperity would threaten US security and overseas economic interests. The solution recommended was the imposition of radical population control measures through the United Nations aid programmes.

A similar one-child allowance in communist China has led to widespread infanticide, forced abortion and sterilization and a looming demographic disaster as fewer female children have been allowed to live since the policy was implemented in the 1970s.

Philippine Catholic MP Rene Velade called the proposed measure “absurd.” “The Responsible Parenthood and Population Management Act, better known as the two-child norm, should be annulled by the government together with another two laws which are destroying our nation, 1808 and 3422,” urged Velade, according to an AsiaNews report. “These laws prevent a good domestic economy and a patriotic and educated society. I find it simply absurd that the bill would give families a semblance of choice in planning but puts a limit on the number of children they want.”

“One must not lose sight of what is happening in the West, Japan and Korea,” Velade warned. “In those countries, rich and industrially well-developed, family planning is resulting in an aging population, which will destroy their economic achievements.”

“These countries now face many crises,” Velade continued. “They do not have young people. So they depend on immigrants for everything. No one pays social benefits to guarantee support for an ever ageing population. With less young people, without children, who will consume products made by the domestic economy? Who will buy national products?

“Some of us in the Philippines think of these countries as a model to follow but they do not realise that their experience only highlights the failure of a birth control policy. Human resources are our main hope,” Velade concluded. “We must make sure we give them maximum protection.”

Eileen Macapanas Cosby, Executive Director of the Filipino Family Fund, expressed outraged over the proposed bill. “Where did this come from? These are Western ideas, not Filipino, and they do not protect the dignity of Filipino women. In fact, they pave the way for the kind of human rights nightmare that is already in China, with its coercive sterilization and contraception practices,” she said. “This Philippine version is really just ‘China-light.’ This is not a policy growing from Filipino values, it is social engineering from the outside being imposed on the Philippine people.”

The Filipino Family Fund (http://www.FilipinoFamilyFund.org) is mobilizing a grass-roots effort of pro-life leaders in the U.S. and the Philippines to build opposition to the social engineering bill. The Fund is sponsoring an on-line petition drive and education initiatives in the Philippines from contributions made by Americans who care.

Intense pressure is constantly placed on third world nations by the UN, other international aid agencies and first world governments offering trade or aid incentives or threatening economic sanctions against those not complying with population control targets. This is undoubtedly what is behind the introduction of such an unlikely measure being introduced to parliament in strongly Catholic Philippines. China has been complying for decades, India is now falling in line and the Phillipines is the obvious next major population target in the East to be brought in line.

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Thousands Rally in Philippines to Protest Population Control Bill
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/mar/05030705.html
Frustrated Population-Control Philippine Politician Wants Church Declared National Security Threat
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/nov/05112502.html
UNFPA Earmarks $26 Million for Philippine De-Population Programme
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/feb/05021004.html
Philippines Uses UN Population Control Money for Natural Family Planning
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/oct/05101205.html

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