Your cover picture of an extremely malnourished Joel Abong (Special Edition, May 10-16) evoked this reaction from Dr. Rolando M. Gripaldo: "If I blame the government, it is mainly for not castrating Joel’s father after the first child was born" (Letter, June 7-13).

Dr. Gripaldo’s acceptance, if not outright advocacy of a compulsory castration program for the poor suggests an utter disregard of human rights as well as a woeful ignorance of birth control methods. Dr. Gripaldo apparently does not know the difference between castration and vasectomy. The latter does not deprive a man of his manhood or deny him the joy of sex.

Unfortunately, Dr. Gripaldo happens to be the chairman of the Philosophy Department of Mindanao State University and the prestige of his institution, alas, lends some respectability to the off-beat mixture of cock-eyed values and technological ignorance that binds him to the moral, philosophical, and political unacceptability of compulsory castration of the poor.

If Dr. Gripaldo were as poverty-stricken as the men he wants to castrate, would he volunteer for the treatment?

JORDAN O. DY

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