Reproductive Health Bill Economic Concerns as Discussed and Argued by Me

Check this out. It's my constructive speech for my recent debate competition last semester during the PGM celebration in San Pablo Colleges.

House Bill No. 5043
Reproductive Health and Population Development Act of 2008
Economic Concerns

I firmly believe that the implementation of House Bill no. 5043 and its accompanying stipulations will serve as a sustaining factor in the continually declining economy of the Philippines. Why, you might ask? Here are my points.
According to the House Bill No. 5043, Section 2, paragraph 3, the declaration of policy states that “This policy is anchored on the rationale that sustainable human development is better assured with a manageable population of healthy, educated and productive citizens.”
The population of the country is far from manageable, a large percentage of the citizens are anything but healthy and most of them are not educated well enough to be productive citizens.
I say the population is unmanageable because according to the national census provided by the national statistics office from 1799-2007 there has been a constant increase with no breaks in the succession. In the old days we could call this progression—more Filipinos meant more manpower, which in truth is one a principal asset of every country according to section 3, subsection d of the RH bill—but nowadays with the increase of prices in the consumer market and poor allocation of resources it would be fitting to call this regression.
According to the census by region, the areas with the highest population and growth rate percentage like NCR, Central and Western Visayas and Southern Mindanao, are those with high density with the most poverty-stricken sects or those with the least access to the reproductive health benefits given by the government.
You see, without the benefits of reproductive health education these areas will continue to grow in population uncontrollably. With the rapid growth of population the resources needed to live contentedly in our country also rapidly diminishes.
A small population with large resources means more for everyone. A large population with small resources means less for everyone. A large population with large resources is far from our reach as of now, but in the future, with the help of this bill and other economic legislations, we might be able to achieve this state.
It’s basic economics, really. The lower the supply—the resources needed for allocation—the demand for it becomes greater. What are these resources?
Jobs needed to provide families with. The keyword would be “provide.” How does one provide for their family when their average income is less than a hundred pesos per day?
According to statistics, forty-four percent (44%) of Filipinos still earn less than two dollars per day, and about two-thirds of them are engaged in activities that rely heavily on environmental and natural resources.
Yes, according to the NSO, the labor force participation has increased in the last two years. Since last year, it has increased from 63.3 to 64.6. As minute as that 0.7% sounds, it still makes a difference. But just because 60 million people have jobs doesn’t mean that the remaining 5 million or so have to be ignored. Why not go all the way and add another way to help increase that percentage with the RH bill?
According to the terms of the Reproductive health bill, by promoting responsible parenthood, the RH Bill will aim to encourage parents to respond to the needs and aspirations of the family and children more particularly through family planning. By being responsible parents, Filipino citizens can raise their children properly without the problems that most families encounter like mistimed and unplanned conceptions.

This leads to the predicament of making ends meet to provide for children in the same age bracket who require almost the same amount of financial support, therefore making the distribution of resources among family members as limited as possible. Unplanned conceptions pose the same problem because most couples have more children than they can possibly support with their given income.

Other than that, the cost of education is still rising even with the support of the public school system. With the increase in size of family members, not only does expenditure per student decline but also actual school attendance declines and child labor increases as household size increases.

And it’s not just the expenditures that are the problem. The ratio of a student to a classroom 1:100, there is only one doctor for every 27,842 Filipinos and one nurse for every 18,638 which should be 1 nurse for every 5000 people. Hospitals themselves are getting overcrowded as well. This leads to more people getting sicker thus nullifying the point of having healthy productive citizens.

The population problem may or may never be resolved but the implementation of this House Bill will make a difference. The economic improvement element of the House Bill is not the highest priority, but is an essential part in a larger sense.

What the people who oppose the RH Bill neglect to consider is that although there are other legislations that could fix the economic problems of the Philippines, there will still be a significant change in the situation once the RH Bill is passed. Why don’t these people try and think outside the box and see that this bill is indeed beneficial to the economy? The point of it all is, with the implementation of the RH bill, the economy of the country will improve agreeably, if not drastically. With that in mind, I rest my case.