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The Conference Room A of JJCICSI was filled with around fifty people to witness the third installment of the Silver Café last Thursday, 20th of August 2009. The session was facilitated by JJCICSI’s Project Officer Melanie Ramos-Llana. The Institute was fortunate to once again have Fr. John J. Carroll, one of the Institute’s founding members and the head of the Church and Family Life Program to deliver a talk entitled, “Addressing Demographic Realities: A Complementary Perspective”.

Population and Development

Fr. Carroll traced the history of population growth, attributing it to the agricultural, industrial and medical revolutions of the past few centuries, which in turn brought about longer life expectancies and lower death rates. It eventually became a problem for third world countries including the Philippines. Even as advances in medicine lengthened the life spans of people, developments in agriculture and industry failed to boost the economy sufficiently to support the growing population.

Fr. Carroll quoted a study of the UP School of Economics saying that “…rapid population growth and high fertility rates especially among the poor do exacerbate poverty and make it harder for the government to address it.” Poverty may be a complex phenomenon, and the growth in population is one of the factors accounting for this. For one, with more children born in a poor family, there is competition among siblings given the meager family resources or a “burden of dependency”. Population growth also aggravates other problems such as the increase of informal settlers, forest destruction, dwindling water resources, air pollution and waste management.

In order to address these problems, the Church has campaigned for responsible parenthood wherein family and human values, such as discipline, goal-setting, self-reliance, strong family bonds and a conducive family environment are promoted and respected. Dialogue with other stakeholders is also seen as a strategy to respond to the growing issue of population growth among the poor since there is a consensus that rapid population growth in present circumstances is one factor impeding economic and social development.

With this, Fr. Carroll outlined practical approaches to addressing the issue, e.g., eliminating obstacles to development, implementing a consistent policy of pro-poor growth, providing education and social services to the poor, and lessening the burden of dependency by helping poor families make rational and value informed decisions regarding family size.

As for the Church’s role, Fr. Carroll pointed out that, it is in the education of youth and couples, strengthening of Natural Family Planning (NFP) at all levels, dialogues explaining the importance of NFP, and openness to government assistance that are crucial.

JJCICSI has taken part in population and development seminars for Catholic schools in the Philippines. It engaged Brgy. Payatas in the NFP program and published brochures on lessons and failures of the program.

To learn more about the topic, check out the book Balancing Act: Social and Catholic Perspectives on Population and Development jointly published by JJCICSI and Philippine Center for Population and Development, available at the JJCICSI office.

Download Fr. Carroll's presentation here.

Tribute to Founders

Before giving way to the open forum of Fr. Carroll’s talk and presentation, a short “Tribute to Founders” was conducted. A six-minute video presentation on the Institute’s founders: Fr. Bienvenido Nebres, Bishop Francisco Claver, and Fr. John J. Carroll was shown.. They all received Plaques of Appreciation from the JJCICSI’s senior staff members. Fr. Robert Rivera accepted the award in behalf of Bishop Claver who could not make it to the event because of another commitment. Nevertheless, the Bishop made a three-page address to be uploaded on the JJCICSI website. On the other hand, Fr. Nebres gave a short message on the founding days of JJCICSI and challenged the Institute to engage further in the current social development efforts of the University, particularly in the area of social entrepreneurship.

Read Fr. Nebres' message here.

The Environment

For the second talk of the afternoon, JJCICSI was pleased to welcome back Fr. Pedro Walpole who spoke of his past battles, current engagements and challenges in the field of environmental advocacy.

Since his assignment in JJCICSI from 1988 to 1992, and for the past twenty-five years of his work in environment, he has been involved in discussions and research regarding forests and natural resources management. Currently the Executive Director of the Environmental Science for Social Change (ESSC), he works closely with local government units, organizations and communities in various areas in the Philippines implementing watershed and forest management programs.

Father Walpole’s talk took on a reflexive tone as he vibrantly remembered his active engagement in environmental advocacy. He cited the more than fifty articles he has written about plantations, deforestation systems, mining, erosion and sustainability. He observes how environmental concerns have entered everyday discourse: “We’ve written the language and words of the environment in our daily life… we’ve gone green…people are now aware.”

He also pointed out the need to bring the people to forefront and let them make decisions because the fight for the environment is not about organizations, but rather a process of returning “back to the people, back to the land.” It is all about listening and starting from where the people are.
He also challenged the people to have an “attitude change” anchoring on the recent incidents of displacements of the Indigenous Peoples (IPs) in Tanay, Rizal due to the construction of Laiban Dam. For him, unless city people change their attitude toward water and power, development projects that displace people will continue. It is all about “helping ourselves to live a more responsible life here in the city”.

For Fr. Walpole’s final points, he identified the need to redesign our social services, re-work political engagements to get much more policy implementation especially on land use prioritization. He also emphasized that what he said are challenges and not criticisms; that we have to go deeper and develop right relationships with people, with God, with the land.

Fr. Walpole and his team have come up with various maps of the current state of forest cover in the Philippines. Among his recent publications is a book entitled Forest Faces, where real stories of hope of individuals with regard to the environment have been documented. He is also in the process of compiling a book on landslides of the Philippines.

BACK TO ANNIVERSARY PAGE

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DAY 1
The Founding of the Institute by John J. Carroll, S.J.
JJCICSI as a Social Apostolate by Silvino L. Borres, S.J.

DAY 2
Philippine Electionsby Atty. Carlos P. Medina
Of Forests and Frontiers by Ruth Esquillo-Ignacio

DAY 3
Population and Development by John J. Carroll, S.J.
The Environment by Pedro W. Walpole, S.J.

DAY 4
Urban Land Reform by Marlene Gatpatan-Bedia with Percival C. Chavez
Overseas Migration by Jeremiah M. Opiniano