Letter to the President of La Salle University

De La Salle University System
2401 Taft Avenue
Manila, Philippines

Attn: Brother Armin A. Luistro FSC
President

Dear Brother Luistro,

I am in receipt of and thank for your letter of scholarship solicitation. I ardently hope La Salle faculty experts and students can find ways and means to halt the destruction of irreplaceable natural resources. I wish them all the success. However, please bear in mind that if they leave neglectfully alone, or fearfully untouched - the evils of uncontrolled population growth in this country, the result will only be more death and destruction.

The Philippines was once famous as the “Pearl of the Orient,” and even more famous as the only “Christian country in Asia.” Today, in the modern world, we are famous only as the Sick man of Asia. Indifference to the pursuit of truth is our national malady, and it is regrettable to see our schools, colleges and universities continue to devote their influence to increasing and justifying the corrupt state of affairs. In this country, indeed, we are all born ignorant, not corrupt; we are made corrupt by education.

My dear Brother, soliciting funds to help make scholarship grants available to 20% of the student population is noble; unfortunately, in the years to come, not noble enough. Yes, it’s noble of you to focus on the college education of a daughter of a taxi driver to receive full scholarship from DLSU-Manila. But do you know that many taxi drivers in our major cities earn higher wages than our teachers earn in schools? Such teachers and their sons and daughters live on a hand to mouth existence, too poor to buy nutritious food and to maintain health. Meanwhile, the poor and the hungry in this country multiply twice as fast as those who enjoy the sin of gluttony. My dear Brother, have you ever heard of Filipinos getting rich for believing that God is bad? Yet millions upon millions of Filipinos are poor for believing that God is good? What has happened to the power of prayer?

It’s good that DLSU-Manila has brought technology closer to the indigenous Tingguian community in Abra. The micro hydra power plant established there is quite impressive. Indeed, there is now a steady supply of electricity for that community. But my dear Brother, unless the community is also seriously educated to practice the values of family planning and the necessity of birth control – all the technology from the world of science will fail to upgrade the Filipino standard of living and thinking. Technology is not some kind of independent, autonomous force. It is merely a transformer of energy. Due, however, to our uncontrolled population growth, more people are using up more energy derived from natural resources much faster than nature can replenish them. Indeed, the first law of ecology tells us that “everything is connected to everything else,” any destruction of one part of nature will affect all other parts, including human beings.

According to United Nations figures, at the current annual growth rates of 1.7 per cent, the world’s population will double to 8 billion by the year 2015 and to 16 billion by the year 2055. In the Philippines today, we are about 88 million people. By the year 2010 our population will reach a 100 million. We have yet, however, to appreciate that each child we bring into our society places a burden on succeeding generations by denying them their own share of resources to sustain their own lives. Human growth and maturity does not come from people needlessly multiplying people. Human progress is born of doubt and inquiry and from the elimination of superstition and other falsehoods. It is sad, isn’t it, life in general in the Philippines can be characterized as the competition to be the criminal or be the victim of criminals.

Our population is indeed growing uncontrollably and needlessly. The more serious problem, however, is that we remain ignorant of those critical parts of the human inheritance – the ecological systems that support human needs and wants. In brief, we just do not know how the earth works. For the average Filipino, however, what he knows is only what the bible teaches him: “Love not this world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not with him.” Thus, the overemphasis of life after death in heaven has led to ecological destruction and exploitation of the natural resources. This view holds that the only things of true value are those found in the heavenly kingdom of God. People and the flesh and nature were taught to us to believe as something low, depraved and unworthy and therefore of little concern or consequence to those seeking the faithful Christian life. Indeed, we have been taught to believe that this world is merely a stopover on our journey to the next world. Therefore, the less love placed on it and more love placed on God’s heavenly kingdom, the better. I ask: is it any wonder that our Christian way of life makes us quite oblivious to the crimes we commit daily against the only home we have in this world: - The planet earth. It is bleeding to death!

By the way, in appreciation to your noble cause, I am sure you could refund my son’s non-refundable down payment of P4,000 at St. Benilde last April. Please use that amount as my humble donation to your scholarship project. My son Bertrand decided to enroll in another university. Happily for me, as his dad, he is already active exploring knowledge for himself even outside academic wall by reading the books comprising my personal library. I have every hope that with the habit of serious reading on science and philosophy, he too will pursue for himself the good life – one inspired by love and guided by knowledge.

In this 21st century, nothing could be more important than saving humanity from self-destruction. What the Philippines needs now is not only love but greater knowledge about the nature of love, in all its complexity. In this connection, I think we should all bear in mind this simple truth: - every human project is a lost project unless there is family planning and human population control.

Sincerely,
Poch Suzara
High School Dropout Association
of the Philippines
P.O. Box 3036, Makati City
September 28, 2005