Population plan may help ease food crisis – NGOs

QUEZON CITY, Philippines - The administration of President Gloria Arroyo should implement a serious, long-term population program – one that promotes all sorts of contraception, and not just natural family planning methods, especially with a recurring rice crisis that the country has had to face in recent years. This is a stand shared by lawyer Clara Rita A. Padilla, founder and executive director of EnGendeRights, and Ben de Leon, president the Forum for Family Planning and Development Inc. EnGendeRights, a nongovernment organization, thus urged the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) to pressure the Philippine government into giving Filipino women access to sexual health information and all sorts of contraceptives. Padilla made the appeal for the group at the ongoing First Universal Periodic Review (UPR) staged by the HRC in Geneva, Switzerland. The Arroyo administration, through the Department of Health and the Population Commission, has focused more on promoting "natural family planning" under pressure from the Catholic Church, according to Padilla in a statement issued on Wednesday. Padilla pushed for an enactment of a national law on reproductive health care that would ensure women's reproductive and sexual rights – regardless of who are the heads of the national and local governments. The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, along with other pro life advocates, has been lobbying against all legislation for a population program, which includes sex education for teenagers and modern family planning methods, Padilla said. This passed on to NGOs and some local government units the responsibility of promoting modern methods, De Leon pointed out. More people, less land A shortage of rice and other food will continue to plague the Philippines, he added, if the government lacks a serious population program and the Church sticks to its strong opposition on family planning. By 2025, the population, De Leon pointed out, is projected to reach 120.2 million in year 2025, citing the 2007 World Population reports of the Population Reference Bureau (PRB). By 2050, the population is projected to reach 150 million, making the Philippines as the 10th among the world's largest countries. The top three are India with 1.747 billion, China with 1.437 billion, and the US with 420 Million. They are followed by Indonesia, Pakistan, Nigeria, Brazil, Bangladesh, Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Philippines. As it is, total rice consumption in the Philippines has grown today to 33,000 metric tons as against 29,000 MT a few years ago, according to statistics provided by the Department of Agriculture. The per capita daily consumption is now 134 kilos this year, up from 118.70 kilos in 2007, 103.16 kilos in 2000, and 92.53 kilos a year in 1990. De Leon said land for food consumption is not increasing citing that arable lands for agriculture is converted into residential and business establishment while population continue to grow. "We fear that there will not be enough food for our people as price of food continue to increase as demand for food also increases globally and world stockpile of rice does not inch up," De Leon said. "This is aggravated by the continued increase in the price of oil, fertilizer, transport, and demand for biofuels and coupled with price speculation." Health problems The rice shortage has resulted in health problems. According to PRB estimates, 21 percent of Filipino children under age five are underweight. By the growth standard set by the World Health Organization, these are children whose weight is two or more standard deviation below the median weight for their particular age. De Leon also noted the high death rate among mothers – 200 for every 100,000 live births – because they can't get basic and emergency obstetric care. In other women's issues, Padilla also urged the HRC in Geneva to pressure the Arroyo administration into solving cases of rape, abduction, and torture of Filipino women by military personnel. She cited the case of two University of the Philippines students – Sheryll Cadapan and Karen Empeño – who have been missing since they were forcibly taken by soldiers on June 26, 2006, in Bulacan. - D’Jay Lazaro, GMANews.TV