Deceptions

It is really sad to note and quite troubling to see the continuing growth not only of the culture of corruption but also lately the culture of deception in our society today. More alarming here is that the government itself and our leaders or some of those aspiring to be leaders are the ones allowing or even promoting their growth.

The practice of deception is very prevalent nowadays in two areas: in the political campaign or promotion of the candidacies of various aspirants for public offices up for grabs in the coming elections, particularly some of those running for President; and in the continuing attempt to adopt a policy of stabilizing the population growth through artificial methods of birth control under the guise of reproductive health, responsible parenthood and population development as contained in the RH bill that has been pending for so long in Congress.

Never before in our elections have there been so many campaign ads and propaganda materials than this coming elections especially those aired and or published in the media. And never before have such ads and propaganda been so far from the truth than those now being spread by some presidential candidates. Easily identifiable are two candidates who are trying to lure the masa, the poor and gullible voters about their being pro-poor or having been poor once with the aim of getting their support that would be enough to catapult them to victory. These two should be rejected at the polls. Victory by any of them means more deception and therefore more corruption in the government.

But the more dangerous deceptions are those employed by the proponents and supporters of the RH bill. From the very start they have been asserting that higher population growth leads to slower economic growth. But six economic studies starting with the pioneering study of Nobel Prize winner Simon Kuznets in 1966 have already shown that “no clear association appears to exist in the present sample countries, or is likely to exist in the other developed countries, between rates of growth of population and of product per capita”. Similar conclusions have also been reached by the US National Research Council in 1986 and in the UNFPA Consultative Meetings of Economists in 1992.

Indeed based on the Philippine experience, economic growth or raising per capita income growth is affected more by the political and economic systems, by good governance and well implemented economic policies rather than by reducing population growth. No less than the Presidential Economic Consultant has pointed this out when he deplored the current economic situation where there are more poor people now despite a seemingly improving economy.

Another deception is the assertion that our population growth is going out of control. This is contrary to the statistics showing that the Philippine annual population growth rates have been decreasing from 3.06% in 1948-60 down to 2.36% in 1995-2000 and further down to 2.04% in 2000-2007. Of course our population is still growing, but this is because of less babies dying and more people living longer. Indeed in the Philippines number of deaths per 1000 births up to age of one year (infant mortality rates) have gone down from 134.4 in 1950-55 to 34.4 in 1995-2000 and further down to 25 in 2005 while life expectancies from birth have increased from 47.8 years in 1950-55 to 68.6 years in 1995-2000. These are statistics and statistics don’t lie.

But the biggest deception is the promotion of the use of a wide range of artificial methods of contraception and birth control pills allegedly for purposes of reproductive health of women, family planning and responsible parenthood. The Catholic Church has even received a lot of flak as being against family planning and responsible parenthood for opposing the use of some of these birth control pills when it has already been medically proven in other countries that they induce abortion or directly cause abortion or some other serious ailments and deformities on babies.

Lately, even as the RH bill has again been stuck at the legislative mill, its proponents and supporters have nevertheless become more aggressive in promoting the use of the artificial contraceptives that are supposed to be allowed only if the bill is enacted into law, more particularly the condom. These prophylactics are being flaunted as a means of having “safe sex”; safe in the wrong sense that the condom serves as an artificial barrier between the ovum and the sperm and will thus prevent pregnancy in case of any genital or conjugal act; and safe in a seemingly correct sense that it prevents the spread of HIV and AIDS.

But whether to prevent pregnancy or the spread of HIV and AIDS condoms are not safe as advertised because of human and technical factors. Human factor refers to the incorrect use of condoms consisting of the difficulty or failure to observe the 10 to 16 steps procedure for its effectiveness. And even if the procedure is strictly followed users can still be at risk because bodily secretions can get around and over a condom. Technical factors refer to the quality of condoms. They can break, slip, tear, and leak; they can age and deteriorate when exposed to extreme temperatures causing them to crack, dry, shrink and lose flexibility and strength. These technical limitations are likely to occur in 1 out of every 12 instances.

The bigger and more dangerous deception is the condoms’ alleged effectiveness in preventing the spread of HIV and AIDS as publicly claimed by Cabral of DOH. On the contrary the use of condoms will even help spread the disease because the microscopic holes in the latex materials of condoms are 50 to 70 microns in diameter while the HIV-1 or AIDS virus is only 0.1 micron in diameter. Hence the microscopic holes of condoms are 500 to 700 times bigger than the HIV-AIDS virus which means that they can easily pass through and infect the sex partner. This is the finding contained in the report of Dr. C. Michael Roland, head of the Polymer Properties/ Chemistry Section of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington D.C. Indeed here in the Philippines the HIV AIDS incidents have increased only since the use of condoms has been aggressively been promoted in media by some media celebrities.

In fact, the Harvard University Center for Population Development Studies already found the use of condoms to stop the spread of AIDS as a dismal failure in the developing countries of Africa. Uganda where the HIV pandemic infected 30% of the population in 1980 succeeded in reducing this down to 6% in 2004 not through condom use but through behavior change: Abstinence for Unmarried and Fidelity for Married people.

So media should give the proper information to the unwary public to eliminate all these deceptions. And better still, let us reject all candidates practicing deception in the coming election. –Jose C. Sison (The Philippine Star)

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E-mail at: jcson@pldtdsl.net