Read this interresting and thought-provoking letter to the editor on the June 7, 2008 issue of the Inquirer with great interest.  I am reprinting it in full. 

Much has been made of "over" population being the root of economic hardship.  The truth is, though it is the most popular argument, it is simply a theory.  There are just as many economists and social scientists who argue the opposite.  Poverty, ultimately, is an issue of attitude and belief.  I'll save that for a future blog.

What do you think?


“Population not root cause of RP’s woes”
    This is a reply to Dr. Ernesto Pernia’s commentary “RP food crisis not simply a supply problem.” (INQUIRER 5/5/08)
    Alarm bells are ringing all over regarding the so-called population explosion, which has become the whipping boy of our economic woes.
    To get a fix on this population issue some matters have to be clarified:
1. Projected population growth rate in the coming decades is estimated by official quarters at 1.9 percent.  This is only consonant with the downward trend, from the postwar 3.6 percent to the 2.3 percent today.  In brief, population growth is not exploding, it is in fact decelerating.  
2. The slowdown in population growth is due to the following:
    a.    Later marriages and smaller families
    b.    Urbanization (television, electricity, office work, etc.)
3. This level of population growth – the (immediate past) has been accompanied by higher economic growth rates – e.g., 7.3 percent last year, the highest in decades.
4. The (Roman Catholic) Church is not against population management.  In fact, it is promoting “natural” family planning methods in the parishes.  What it is against is “artificial” family planning which uses contraceptives and abortifacients which are anathema to Catholic doctrine.
5. Philippine population translated into the “explosion” in labor exports has been the highest contributor to the growth of the economy.  In fact, were it not for its contribution of approximately P500 billion yearly – an amount equal to about 50 percent of the national budget – our economy would most probably be in dire straits, given the lackadaisical performance of the manufacturing and agriculture sectors which cannot even provide enough food for the country.
6. Heavily populated countries – China, India, Brazil, Vietnam – are also the fastest growing economies in the world today.
7. Among economists, the jury is still out with regard to the impact of population on development.  While there are the Malthusians (prophets of doom in the profession), there are also those who see a big population that matches the natural resource endowments of a country as the driver of development.
8. Today there is still talk that the country, after going through a challenging period of fast population growth amid slow economic growth, is actually benefiting from what economists call the “demographic dividend” where a bigger labor force (as we see in China, India, etc. today), when matched with its abundant natural resource, can actually catapult this country to greater economic heights.
9. Philippine poverty is rooted in graft and corruption, government ineptitude and undeveloped natural resources.
10. It is also traceable to a closed economy run by monopolists and oligolopists in a regime of imperfect competition where the rich get richer and the poor poorer.

                                -- Ambassador Jose V. Romero, Ph.D.,
                                    University of Asia and the Pacific.