Philippine Pro-Lifers Stand By Anti-Condom Policy

By Patrick Goodenough
May 6, 2004

Pro-lifers in the Philippines have challenged claims by a leading human rights group that the government is risking an "explosion" of HIV-AIDS by refusing to promote the widespread use of condoms.

A senior government official, too, has responded to the charges by saying that making condoms freely available would not necessarily mean people would use them.

Accusing Manila of pandering to the Catholic Church, the New York-based group Human Rights Watch said this week the government was "courting an AIDS epidemic with its anti-condom approach."

"The casualties will be millions of people who cannot protect themselves from HIV infection," the report's author said.

In a statement summarizing its 70-page report, Human Rights Watch conceded that the HIV-AIDS infection rate was relatively low in the country, but said that a "combination of high-risk sexual practices and low condom use has led experts to fear an HIV-AIDS explosion in the Philippines."

The Philippines is a case that has long stymied AIDS activists. It has one of the lowest HIV-AIDS infection rates in Asia, although in a country where more than 80 percent of the population is Catholic, many don't use artificial contraception.

U.N. health officials predicted in 1990 that there would be more than 75,000 HIV-AIDS infections in the Philippines by 1998. In fact, by 2001 there were some 9,400, or less than 0.1 percent of the population aged 15-49, according to UNAIDS estimates.

By comparison, the figures are 2.7 percent for Cambodia, 1.8 percent for Thailand and 1.99 percent for Burma.

On the other hand, infection rates in Thailand and Cambodia have in recent years come down significantly from their peaks, a development the World Health Organization attributes to campaigns promoting 100 percent condom use among prostitutes.

A representative of Pro-life Philippines, a non-governmental organization, said Thursday Human Rights Watch should not blame the Catholic Church if HIV-AIDS infections in the Philippines do climb.

Any rise in the figures would not be the result of the Catholic teaching on condoms, but "because of sexual promiscuity and downward trend of morality among Filipinos - the culture of sexual gratification, that is the main cause."

The pro-life campaigner, who spoke by phone from Manila on condition of anonymity, said if the church in the Philippines could be blamed for anything, it was perhaps "failure to teach Catholics the right moral values."

"If the Catholic majority has the correct moral values, it would be an effective prevention against the AIDS epidemic."

In its report, Human Rights Watch stated that condoms were "the only widely available device for preventing sexual transmission of HIV." It said condoms "have proven highly effective when used correctly and consistently."

The Filipino pro-lifer disputed those assertions.

Not only are condoms themselves not 100 percent effective in preventing the transmission of sexually-transmitted diseases, he said, but "not all users are efficient in following [manufacturers'] instructions."

Storage was another factor, he said. It was common practice for men to keep condoms in their wallets, but "heat and pressure decrease the effectiveness of the latex. So you have false security."

In one of its pamphlets, Pro-life Philippines argues that condoms not only provide a false sense of protection, but they also "tell people that promiscuity is all right" and "trivialize sex and reduce it to a plaything."

The campaigner said his organization was not opposed to the concept of family planning.

"Planning a family is a good thing. But the methodology to be used, that is the debate. The pro-life movement here advocates natural family planning," he said, referring to the method involving monitoring the ovulation period and timing sexual intercourse accordingly.

In its report, Human Rights Watch accused some local authorities of prohibiting the distribution of condoms in government health facilities and said the government was failing to provide complete HIV-AIDS information to prostitutes and other high-risk groups.

That was disputed Wednesday by the country's health secretary, Manuel Dayrit, who was quoted by the Philippine Inquirer newspaper as saying the government had been educating both prostitutes and students about condom use and HIV-AIDS prevention.

Dayrit also argued that the prevention of HIV-AIDS did not rest on providing free condoms but on Filipinos' attitudes.

Distribution of condoms did not ensure that they would actually be used to prevent sexually transmitted diseases, he said.

"Saying that using condoms is the best way to prevent the spread of HIV is one thing; saying that giving condoms for free ensures that people would actually use them is another."

'Authentic rights'
Offering her reaction to the Human Rights Watch report Thursday, Jo Imbong, an attorney at the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines legal office, was also highly critical.

"If we speak the language of 'rights,' let it be about authentic human rights - rights which foster human dignity, not degrade and corrupt it," she said from Manila.

Citing Catholic objections to condom use, Imbong said "the right to religious belief is a paramount human right. Will Human Rights Watch deny that?"

The government's policy not to use public money for condoms was "an act of governance, an exercise of sovereignty," she said. "Surely Human Rights Watch will also not begrudge the Philippine government that inherent power?"

Imbong said the Bush Administration's funding of "abstinence-until-marriage" programs - which the rights group this week again criticized - was a perfect example of public policy that respects human rights.

"It is built on the assumption - true at that - that people have inherent dignity and because of this attribute, they can rein in their physical urges and make reason prevail."

The Philippines holds presidential and legislative elections next week, but the Pro-life Philippines representative said the organization was not endorsing any presidential candidate.

All of them made "vague and ambiguous statements" when it came to questions of family planning and population control, he said.

"Why not say yes or no? If you are pro-contraceptive, why not say it categorically? If you are against contraceptives, why not state it? Do not use ambiguous statements or double talk."

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