Legislation to limit family size generates debate in Philippines

Published: 2004-08-19

QUEZON CITY, Philippines (CNS) -- At age 50, Erlinda Loreto still enjoys accompanying her two children to school. Her son, Earl John, 13, and daughter, Dara Athena, 10, say their mother also manages to visit shopping malls with them despite her hectic work with a nongovernmental organization. "My husband and I agreed that we should only have two children because of life's hardships," Loreto told UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand. "That decision has been economically and socially advantageous for all of us." Just northeast of Manila, in Marikina, Emma Crista told UCA News that raising her seven daughters and three sons has been rough but rewarding. Crista and her husband, a security guard at a bank, chose to have as many children as "God wants." "If God gives us children, he would give us what we need to raise them," said the 37-year-old Catholic homemaker. Crista said one way her family tries to manage financially is by making some of her children stop school so their "smarter" siblings with "better chances" can get an education. A son goes to a Catholic college under a financial aid program, while the two other boys go to free public high school and grade school. "One of my daughters just dreams of being a singer, another helps me take care of the house, and the older one sells at a fruit stall," Crista said. Families as large as the Cristas are what House Bill 16 hopes to eliminate. Because of this, the bill's first reading in the House of Representatives July 27 has provoked arguments on limiting family size and revived debate on the role of population growth in poverty and development. On Aug. 14, speakers from the legal office of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines and Pro-Life Philippines explained their opposition to the bill at a forum in Quezon City, northeast of Manila.

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