Monday, May 05, 2008 Seares: No sexual restraint in Ginatilan By Pachico A. Seares News Sense
OFFICIALS of Ginatilan in west Cebu offer a seeming oddity: They’re complaining about a decrease of the town’s population. National Statistics Office (NSO) listed 14,073 in 2000 but only 13,654 in 2007.
While most other localities gripe about having more people that strain food supply and government services, Ginatilan worries about having fewer people.
Ginatilan has just earned the dubious distinction of being the only town in Cebu whose population figure fell.
Mayor Dean Michael Singco must draw little comfort from the Thomas Malthus theory that population will always outpace food production and only sexual restraint or a large-scale disaster can reverse the trend.
But even if the Malthus theory has some truth, the NSO figures still suck for Ginatilanons. With the food factor aside, they can say with a straight face: Look, no major calamity has struck the town and nobody has admitted limiting sex after the angelus.
Explanation
Mayor Singco’s explanation is more credible: NSO botched its job. The mayor said census reports were incomplete by half and census takers didn’t know town boundaries.
Does the NSO do a recount, just like the court on protested poll results? Maybe quietly, without the noise the Ginatilan complaint is making.
Already, critics are questioning the figures. If NSO erred in one locality, it probably erred elsewhere too. One conspiracy theory is that NSO rigged figures to suit government agenda on population growth.
Ginatilan’s passion is less greedy than wanting more congressional districts: The town just doesn’t like its internal revenue share slashed.
