TOPIC: ONE CHILD POLICY IN PHILIPPINES

One Child Policy is a policy wherein each married couple sets to a limitation of having only 1
child that they can bear. The policy made an exceptions, including families were allowed to
apply to have a second child if their first-born was a daughter, families with children with
disabilities and families whose first child suffers from physical disability, mental illness, or
intellectual disability were allowed to have more children and also it made an exemption to
ethnic minorities (Hu, 2002). Where women are required to have intrauterine device (IUD)
through surgery it will be installed to them after having a first child to prevent them for having
another pregnancy (Winner, 2012). Since China is facing so much problems with their sudden
increase of population, it made the Chinese Government to come up with the idea to reduce
their continously increasing population by implementing the One Child Policy in their country.
The Philippines should not implement the One Child Policy because it will result to a spoiled &
overly-pressured child, Filipino couples will leave the country if they plan to have a second child;
it will cause Human Rights Violation.

Implementing this policy will just create more problems. Though it will reduce our population
but there will be more problems that Philippines will encounter as soon as the Government
implement it. China ended up their One Child Policy in 2015. If that country experienced
difficulties. What more to our country? The following details will serve as a proofs why
Philippines shouldn't implement One Child Policy.

First, is it will have a higher pessure to the child. Since he/she is an only child many
responsibilities will fall upon their shoulder and they may experience too much pressure.
Especially when it comes to the education and family's business. Other studies show first-born
children perform better in school, have higher IQs, and are more likely seen as high-achieving by
their parents (Thompson, 2013) but the thought that they don't want to fail their parents, it will
led them to study and work hard so they won't dissapoint their parents. Too much pressure will
push themselves pretty hard and they can be pretty critical when they don't do as well as they
like (Pickhardt, n.d). 196 cases participants described children without siblings as excessively
spoiled (Hartmann, 2019). Being an only child they always get what they want since they have
no siblings to deal with. They tend to be selfish and egocentric.

Second, Filipino couples might leave to flew to another country if they want to have a second
child. It's not impossible for Filipinos to flew to another country. Some families would travel to a
foreign country or to Hong Kong. The US was a particularly popular travel destination as most
children born in the United States have automatic US citizenship (Regoli, n.d).

Third, it removes the rights of the married couple to have a bigger family. Having a One Child
Policy is like letting someone dictate your life. Planning the size of one’s family is believed to be
a basic human right. In a 1968 proclamation from the International Conference on Human
Rights, it was decided that the number and spacing of children in a family is a basic right of the
parents (Regoli, n.d). So basically the One Child Policy violates the Human Rights.

These are some proofs why Philippines shouldn't implement One Child Policy. Government
must know what's the best for their country. So they need to think multiple times before
implementing this kind of policy. One Child policy is not the answer to the increasing rate
population. It just makes the situation more complicated and worse. Killing and abandoning
innocent children is not what the government's shouldn't do. There are alternative ways such as
higher taxation of parents who have too many children. Let the families who have many
children pay for higher taxes. So that they are aware that once they will have too much children,
their taxes will also increase. In that way they are more aware in what might happen to them.
Birth control such as tubal ligation where women's fallopian tubes are permanently blocked or
removed so that it prevents them to had another pregnancy. Conducting a free familly planning
in every barangay is the most important wherein the families will have a proper knowledge
about having a family. Problem doesn't require violence & use force in order to be resolve. It
can be resolve in a way without innocent child are being involve. A nation that kills its children
in the womb has lost its soul. (Mother Teresa, n.d)