Annually preggy.

This was how we described our high school librarian who was, well, pregnant during our whole four-year stay in UPIS. It was still normal, my friends and I would think, that she was pregnant when we got there, and the year after that. But to be carrying a child for the third consecutive year, even during our last year in high school, was just way too much.

It was too much, not only because of physical health concerns for her, not only because of serious economic considerations for their family (her husband is also our librarian, UPIS being a government school, the pay is not exactly within what one can call �financial comfort zone�), but also because of what such a �birth spacing� practice mirrors in our society.

It is worth considering that she is already in a school set-up. Our librarian is not exactly directly involved in the academe, but she is relatively more exposed to information on family planning than, let�s say, a mother who lives under a bridge in Pasig. If someone like her seems not to have �birth control� or �birth spacing� in her vocabulary, how much more a mother whose only source of information and education are �The Buzz� and �Startalk�.

Not to sound like Madame Auring (the credible fortune teller that she is), but I do have a fearless forecast for 2005. I dare say that the Philippines� population will continue to soar into great heights, far higher than the altitudes the Mulawins can bear.

Even to this day, it still is a debate whether population is an issue worthy of attention in our country. According to economist Dr. Ernesto Pernia, we find ourselves �virtually alone among middle-income developing countries as not having made any significant demographic transition.� We find ourselves dwelling on an issue already considered pass� even by less developed countries in Asia. Yes, we are like a people group still gaga over Meteor Garden when �they are so last year� already, compared to Lovers in Paris.

The topic of most of Lino Brocka�s films, poverty, has been and continues to be one of our most major problems as a nation. It is true that effective and efficient economic policies could reduce poverty and benefit the poor, as with our Asian neighbors. But we also have to work on the context that the Philippines has a very high fertility rate. Dealing with our population will also directly benefit the poor, apart from the effects sound economic policies will have on them.

Ours is a special case because the government has no clear and consistent population policy unlike other Asian countries, according to Dr. Pernia. It is true that such factors as poor governance, lack of a credible leadership and corruption are also reasons behind our poverty. But these are problems also faced by other Asian countries. The difference, therefore, is in how we handle our population.

To address this, the government must beef up its population policy. How? First is by having one. It must courageously stand its ground on this issue and employ both natural and artificial methods of contraception. In so doing, the couples are empowered not only by the information they will receive but also by the choice they are free to make. Such programs, though, should be tempered by the Constitution (abortion is unconstitutional).

Also, when it already has a resolute family planning program, the government must adequately fund it. There are financial considerations to a much-needed information dissemination on population policy, but the government must employ cost-benefit analysis to realize that the good effects outweigh the costs of a well-promoted campaign.

Especially during our times, when PR and advertisements make or break particularly everything, the government must be both forceful and innovative. Philippine Information Agency must do away with the cornball government ads it releases which include badly-rehearsed actors murmuring lines from a badly-written script. The creative resources Pres. Gloria Arroyo employed in her presidential campaign ads using the public�s money, she must once again use, this time for the genuine benefit of the Filipinos. Especially for this project must she get the endorsement and support of Ai-ai, Boy Abunda, Bayani Agbayani, and even her Vice President�s political party, ABS-CBN, to promote her population policy.

As students, our major contribution to help ease the problem is by not contributing more children to our population. While we are still in school, let us busy ourselves first with our academics, with service to other students and Filipinos. We should always, well, be pregnant with fresh ideas to help our country, not with children yet. #