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Bishops link gov’t corruption to looming commodity crisis
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MANILA, Philippines - Two bishops on Thursday blasted pundits for linking the current food supply woes to the country’s fast growing population and low productivity.
Tagbilaran Bishop Leonardo Medroso and Antipolo Bishop Francis de Leon said hoarders, bad state policy on food production and widespread government corruption should be blamed for the looming commodity crisis.
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“Sinisisi ang tao sapagkat wala nang pagkain, but there is no such thing as overpopulation…oh my God, and yet in the provinces miles and miles walang tao eh, waste land eh," Medroso told Catholic-run radio Veritas.
(People are being blamed for the food scarcity and yet many lands are unpopulated and uncultivated.)
Medroso said the proliferation of idle lands resulted from government neglect and its unclear food production policy.
“So why, why blame the people? They don’t manage these lands," Medroso said.
Medroso said the perceived rice crisis could be partly blamed on the government’s misplaced development priority.
He said the Philippines is an agricultural economy but the farming industry is taking a back seat to the mining and manufacturing industries.
“Pamumuno yan...management ba. Kasi mga priorities natin nandiyan sa mining eh," he said.
In a separate interview, De Leon took note of the government’s corrupt practices that led to the proliferation of hoarders of prime commodities to dispute claims that farmlands shrunk due to population growth.
“Ang dahilan ay iyong mga ilang tao ay kinakamkam ang karamihan sa mga kayamanan at pagkain," De Leon said.
He said state officials should have a wider view of the current food problem as he appealed to them to stop using the population growth as scapegoat.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines had also criticized pro-family planning groups for using the rice crisis as another argument in pushing for population control.
According to Archbishop Paciano Aniceto, chair of the CBCP’s Episcopal Commission on Family and Life, the link between economic development and population is a “liturgy that promotes hate for humans."
“This is a very dangerous attitude. Human resource is our main ally for progress development. Our present crisis is a crisis of management - How we could properly manage our economy (and) our resources," Aniceto said.
Aniceto added that instead of laying the blame on the country’s population, it should be commended for being a major economic booster through labor migration.
“Nations are competing to hire our workers," he said.
The Philippines is one of the top 5 countries receiving remittances from migrants.
The Catholic Church has been very vocal in its opposition to artificial and modern family planning methods such as the use of contraceptives. It has been actively lobbying in Congress to block the passing of reproductive health bills. - GMANews.TV
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