WAY back in 2005, we had the privilege to join a tour with an itinerary that took us to the Vatican, Rome, Venice and its canals, the Italian lakes at Varese near the Swiss border; Lucerne, Switzerland, also with its lakes and high mountain peak, Mt. Pilatus, near Zurich; Paris, with its museums and the famous Eiffel Tower where up there you see the panorama of the city; the channel at Calais, and London where we ended our tour after nine days.

We extended our stay for 16 days on our own, and saw more of downtown London and the UK countryside, including the historic old University City of Oxford, as well as Bath City where the old Roman royalty spent their holidays.

Then, we flew to Germany and visited Weislock County, the city of Heidelberg where our national hero, Jose P. Rizal, studied at its university as an eye surgeon, and the ancient city of Speyer with its centuries-old cathedral and open-air museum of World War II fighter planes.

Some friends asked how, with our modest means, were we able to make the tour? We revealed to them our secret: We have seven children and, together, they “conspired” to surprise us on our wedding anniversary with the tour as a gift. The moral of our story is: “Have many children, will travel!”

We are telling you our story because of the Population Control Bill filed in Congress, now under plenary debate. Do you know what will happen when this bill becomes a law?

It would now mandate an “ideal family size,” setting the stage for a proposed Two-Child Policy. It will impose stiff penalty on citizens that can include six months of imprisonment and heavy fines if they do not comply with the reproductive health agenda imposed by government.

According to the bill, these penalties could even apply to any person “who maliciously engages in disinformation about the intent or provision of this act.”

There you are! When the bill becomes a law, you will not be allowed to make more babies or even talk against it, or you would get into trouble with the police or the military! What kind of country hall we now have then? A dictatorship?

Pushing for the approval of the law is the Philippine Legislator Committee on Population and Development (PLCPD) that works with the International Planned Parenthood and the United Nations (UN) Population Fund in the creation of this legislation to depopulate the country through all possible means, even if immoral.

The UN Fund has appropriated $26 million to the Philippines for this purpose. We did not count yet the lobby money of the drug companies for the bill to be assured of becoming a law.

On the other hand, for the oppositors of the bill led by our bishops and other religious groups like the Couples for Christ and even non-Catholics groups, notwithstanding their moral and righteous cause, all they have are boiled and fried bananas or peanuts in their bags and pockets while they hold vigils or demonstrate against the bill.

With the kind of partisan congressmen we have nowadays and the amount of funding to push the approval of the bill, only a miracle can save the Filipino family from this bill that can kill recklessly the unborn when implemented. Then the drug companies operating in our country, mostly foreign, will be laughing their way to the bank.

Now, what does our travel story has to do with the bill? Our point is that the number of children that one has in the family has nothing to do with his being poor. College education for the children is one way we know that can fight poverty effectively.
Most of our countrymen who are poor are those unschooled or school dropouts, but those who fought hardship to educate themselves generally became better off than what their parents used to be.

We wish that the $26 million from the UN Fund and the undetermined lobby money of the drug companies were donated instead to provide scholarship for every young man or woman in this country who cannot afford to go to college.

Government does not need to tinker with God’s plan to help the poor but, as they say, we can teach all our young men and women how to fish instead of just giving them fish. Then we will have no mendicants when we grow old because we will have children well enough to take care of us, if need be!

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