Four years ago, there were some 1,000 people living in Barangay Balaytigui in Nasugbu, Batangas.  Today, there are over 4,500 residents in this rural barangay, and the number of people continues to grow rapidly—not necessarily because of migration, but mostly because of the surge in the population.

I am told there are a hundred women in this barangay who are pregnant today, ready to give birth within the next six months.  This seems to be a story that's duplicated almost everywhere in the Philippines, with women mostly coming from the poor getting pregnant nonstop, giving birth to babies year after year at a rate of four babies per minute.

Barangay Balaytigui is located right next to Landco Development's Peninsula de Punta Fuego.  The residents of Punta Fuego put up a foundation precisely to help alleviate the situation in the barangay.  But regardless of the foundation's efforts to raise as much funds as possible, there's just never enough for food, for nutrition, for medicine and ultimately, for education.

There are many good Samaritans who mean well and sincerely want to help.  In fact, a well meaning resident tried to stem the tide of unabated population growth by putting up a family clinic providing ligation, vasectomy and other responsible reproductive management methods.  But when a local priest reportedly got wind of it, he warned everyone in the barangay that if they ever go to that clinic, he will not allow them to enter his church.

This is a never ending problem—the clash between religious conservatives and responsible parenthood advocates.  There seems to be no end in sight because of these very strong opposite views.  So the barangay continues to have more people and less and less resources for basic things like food, shelter, health, education.  Just to vividly illustrate the problem, a female caddy who works for one of the golf clubs in the area was forced to get married when she was 15 because she had no other choice, coming from a poor family with no chance for education.  Today, at the age of 32, she already has 10 children, eight of whom are female.  When these girls reach the age of puberty, they will most likely get married at an early age and give birth every year, starting the cycle all over again.

Again, this is a story that is prevalent in many places all over the country, where women simply get married early and end up like breeding machines.  By 2020, there will be around 113 million Filipinos, and the number could go up to 168 million by 2036.  With this pathetic situation, the resources will never ever be enough.

I remember 40 years ago the Christmas package drive we used to have at the Ateneo grade school.  We would put together canned goods, rice, clothes, toys for the children—and we had more things to give than the number of people who would receive them.  Today, there isn't enough to give because there's just more and more people who keep needing help.  Gawad Kalinga has a great project building homes for the poor and helping them with livelihood opportunities, but there's just not enough houses they can build for all the poor in this country.

Forty years ago, there was more money for development, roads, infrastructure, health and education.  When the Light Railway Transit (LRT) was first opened in 1984—three years ahead of the Singapore Mass Rapid Transit (MRT)—its original purpose was to reduce traffic congestion and eventually lessen the volume of buses on the road.  In 2004 alone, some 380,000 commuters used the LRT network every single day, and yet traffic continues to be horrible.

Today, there are just as many, if not even more buses, plying Metro Manila simply because there are a lot more people commuting, even with the addition of the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) system.  No matter how much government and the private sector try to help make life better especially for the needy, the efforts and resources will never be enough to catch up with the demands of an ever increasing number of Filipinos.

We can continue to criticize and blame Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, we can try to change all the characters in government, we can blame congressmen, we can blame Cha-cha, the con-ass, the con man, everybody including the dog for the problems of this country, but the bottom line is: the real problem is there are less resources, more people, ergo more corruption.  It's a never ending vicious cycle.

We only have to look at India and China and see where they are going.  China is supposed to be progressing rapidly, but they have 1.3 billion people.  Only 200 million Chinese are doing well, while the rest continue to live in dire poverty.  In India, there are 300 million who make up the new affluent middle class, but by 2025, India's population will balloon to 1.39 billion, and it will overtake China for having the biggest number of people on earth by 2030.  Meantime, the rest of the 800 million Indians will remain poor with the same old story—less resources, more people.

This is the path where the Philippines will most likely go, and unless we start getting serious, no amount of prayer, no amount of rallies, no amount of protests will ever change the landscape of the poor in this country.  The quality of life will not get any better.  And no matter how many well meaning people do their share to give the light of hope for the poor especially during Christmas time, there will just never be enough candles for these people to see the light of Christmas.

#########

Email: babeseyeview@hotmail.com

BACK TO TOP