MikeLigalig.com

Glenn Carlos
DZMM
abs-cbnnews.com

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) shot down a congressional proposal to allocate P1 billion for the purchase of contraceptives for the government's population control program, saying it would be better to use the money to fund pro-poor projects.

Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, CBCP president, said contraceptives “are wrong in themselves” because they violate “nature and God’s law.”

“It is not just a matter of being conservative, but also of being morally right,” he said in a statement posted on the CBCP Website www.cbcponline.net.

The CBCP president said the government should instead allocate the fund to feed the impoverished.

“We categorically object to it and instead and instead strongly recommend that the P1 billion be directly appropriated or added for hunger and poverty alleviation projects, as well as for free education of extremely poor children,” he said.

Lagdameo issued the statement following the proposal made by Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, chairman of the House appropriations committee, to allocate P1 billion for the purchase of “reproductive health products” to control population growth.

Lagman said he will raise the issue at the start of the plenary discussions on the proposed P1.227-trillion 2008 national budget.

The government, based on reports, is bent on pursuing its population program after projections said that the number of Filipinos could reach 141.7 million by year 2040.

The National Statistics Office said that this projection means that 65 million people would be added to the nation's population between 2000 and 2040, which is a span of 40 years.

It added that the population could blow up even if the average annual growth rate is projected to drastically decline from 2.34 percent during the 1990-2000 period to around 1.0 percent during the 2030-2040 time frame.

The NSO projected the population to grow by 1.95 percent in the 2005-2010 period, from 85.3 million in 2005 to 94.0 million in 2010.

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