Seven quotes on the RH bill

From the Facebook page of pro-life author, blogger and journalist Diana Uichanco:

”Sabi ho ng kabilang partido, kaya daw po naghihikahos ang gobyerno ay dahil walang budget for stretching. Nanggaling na mismo sa kanila ang stretching… eh di kung linagyan pa po ng pondo na pambili ng condoms at contraceptives, eh di you stretch [the budget] further. So alin po ang willing i-sacrifice ng pro-RH legislators sa budget para lang po namin maisingit ang gusto nilang pondo para sa procurement of condoms and contraceptives?

“We can even see that the budgets for education, for tertiary educational scholarships, skills training, livelihood projects, assistance for farmers, agrarian reform beneficiaries, are being cut.” – ZAMBALES REP. MITOS MAGSAYSAY

“It makes me wonder whether there is lack of freedom at present that warrants a new controversial measure that is HB 4244 just to give people a choice that they already enjoy. Certainly it is not prohibited to practice natural family planning or to abstain from sex altogether, nor is it prohibited at present to use contraceptives. Is there any existing law that prevents us from exercising freedom of choice on matters of contraception and abstinence? There is none.” – PALAWAN REP. DENNIS SOCRATES

"The government has no right to fund the purchase of bibles, crucifixes, copies of the Koran etc. because these are [personal] preferences. In the same way, the government has no right to fund the purchase of contraceptives.” – ED SORRETA, PRO-LIFE PHILIPPINES CHAIRMAN

“The RH promoters do whatever they have to do to get these things passed — they spend their money in promotion, in getting journalists on their side, opening clinics to circumvent pro-life laws, wooing politicians who value their own power more than they do the families and culture of the nation they represent. If they can’t get what they want — which is free-of-charge and full access to contraception and abortion — passed democratically, they will use the courts or other non-democratic means to get what they want.” – STEPHEN PHELAN, HUMAN LIFE INT'L (HLI) COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR

“In 1984 was the AIDS breakout in the Philippines and in Thailand at the same time. The response in the Philippines was to promote abstinence; the response of Thailand was to promote condoms. Twenty years later, the rate of AIDS infection in Thailand was 50 times higher than in the Philippines.” – CHRIS STEFANICK, CHASTITY SPEAKER

“They want us to accept from Congress what is contrary to our faith. They ask Catholics to show tolerance for their belief or non-belief, but they show complete non-tolerance for our Catholic belief.” – FORMER SENATOR, FRANCISCO TATAD

“Banal ang pag-aasawa; banal ang pagtatalik sapagka’t ito ay kalakip ng pagbibigay ng buhay na galing sa Panginoong Diyos. Hindi ito laru-laruan na ituturo sa mga bata sa paggamit ng goma, lobo o condom, para iwasan daw ang sakit? Bakit mga bata ang tuturuan ng ganitong laro? Hindi po ba ang tamang ituro sa kabataan ay ang magandang halimbawa ng matatanda at ang kahalagahan ng buhay, ang kabanalan ng pagpipigil sa sarili na ang tawag ay disiplina? Ang tawag po noong una ay kapag may pagpipigil, mayroong disiplina at paggalang at magkakaroon din ng Karakter ang tao. Ngayon ang gustong ipamulat sa kabataan ay ito: gamitin ang goma, maglaro kayo! Ganyan kabarato ang buhay ng tao ngayon.” – FORMER ARCHBISHOP OF MANILA GAUDENCIO CARDINAL ROSALES, at the March 25, 2011 pro-life rally

For the record: Bishop Broderick Pabillo et al in defense of the Church's position towards HIV-AIDS and HIV-AIDS victime

In recent days a variety of articles have appeared in the Philippine media, blaming the Catholic Church for the spread of AIDS! Why? Because, according to these reports, the Church condemns the use of condoms, and thus it can be assumed that this condemnation is obeyed by men who have sexual relations with other men! A patently illogical criticism, as practicing homosexuals are evidently not obeying the Catholic Church in the first place. 

Vital facts overlooked in editorial

Philippine Daily Inquirer

Monday, July 23rd, 2012

This refers to “Overlooked epidemic” (Inquirer, 7/8/12) on the rising number of HIV/AIDS cases in the Philippines. Surprisingly, the editorial failed to focus on where the disease actually is and those most at risk. Without focus, we end up just shooting in the dark. The Church also becomes victim of the haphazard criticism that it “has not been of much help, with its continued opposition to the use of condoms.” This statement overlooks vital facts.

Worldwide, the Catholic Church provides over 25 percent of all health care for those living with HIV/AIDS. In the Philippines, the Catholic bishops have shown concern on the issue as far back as 1993 with its pastoral letter “In the Compassion of Jesus” and “Who is my Neighbor?” in 2011. The Philippine Catholic HIV & AIDS Network (PhilCHAN), under the guidance of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, is engaged in a values-based prevention campaign in schools and parishes; actively promotes voluntary counseling and HIV testing for early diagnosis and treatment, as well as behavior change; provides psycho-spiritual accompaniment to those newly diagnosed with the virus, and has set up a modest fund for livelihood support. The Church is at the frontline of the battle against AIDS, helping—and supported by many NGOs—in government efforts to combat this deadly disease. It may thus be unfair, even a sign of ignorance or prejudice, to claim that the Church has not been of much help.

On condoms, well, it does not support the widespread distribution of condoms because there is no evidence that the strategy is effective at a population-wide level. Dr. Edward Green, former director of the prestigious AIDS Prevention Research Project at Harvard University, wrote that scientific studies in the Lancet, Science and British Medical Journal confirmed that “condoms have not worked as a primary intervention in the population-wide epidemics of Africa.” This can be explained by inconsistent condom use and by the phenomenon of “risk compensation” whereby an individual who thinks he is protected actually takes more risks.

The editorial surprisingly also overlooks the group most at risk of HIV, the so-called MSM, males who have sex with other males. Eighty-five percent of the new cases of HIV in the Philippines this year involve MSM. If we want to target the epidemic, we need to target the most at risk groups. The USAID report from 2001, clearly stated that “the Church is not a hindrance to the high-risk groups…. where the rise in HIV is happening…. Those men probably do not have hesitations about condoms because of their Catholic faith.” It would thus be ludicrous and rather short-sighted to blame the spread of HIV in the MSM group on the Church.

Those who blandly promote condom use as a magic panacea for the MSM group are doing our brothers a great disservice and an injustice.

—BISHOP BRODERICK S. PABILLO, bishop-advisor and CBCP-NASSA national director; DR. JAMES MCTAVISH, FMVD, MD, FRCSed, MA(Bioethics), STL; SR. PILAR VERZOSA, RGS;

JOSEPHINE IGNACIO

The Philippines: an HIV mystery (or, Why the Philippines must control the spread of condoms)

Can the Philippines keep AIDS at bay if it embraces condom culture?

The advance of AIDS in the Philippines has been "low and slow", but birth control ideology could unleash a full-blown epidemic.

by Oliver M. Tuazon and Angelo S. Porciuncula

(March 5, 2012)

While the Philippine Senate is busy with the impeachment trial of the Chief Justice of the Philippine Judiciary, the House of Representatives has resumed its interpellations on the controversial Reproductive Health Bill (HB 4244). President Benigno Aquino III is a known supporter of the bill, which has caused worry in some quarters that he will ask his allies in the lower house to fast-track its passage as he did with the impeachment of the Chief Justice. The Speaker of the House is a member of the Philippine Legislative Council for Population and Development, one of the most active groups lobbying for its passage.

The RH bill is entitled “An Act Providing for a Comprehensive Policy on Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health and Population Development and for Other Purposes.” However, let’s be clear that the Philippines is not a desert when it comes to birth control devices and services. In recent months, as condom ads flooded the streets and consciousness of Philippine society, it has become clear to everyone that the marketing and use of contraceptives in the Philippines is already legal and that the RH debate is actually about the use of government funds to promote and supply condoms, pills, injections, IUDs, sterilization procedures and so on to all and sundry.

This would, above all, complete a cultural revolution that began in 1967 when former President Marcos signed up to an international agreement on population control, a concept that the West has successfully imposed on many other developing nations. In conjunction with other social changes such as urbanisation, indigenous sexual and family culture has been undermined in these countries and new health threats have arisen, which lends doubt as to its genuine concern for “(reproductive) health”.

This is nowhere more evident than in the HIV/AIDS epidemic that has swept sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia while condom has been king. It is on this phenomenon that we now wish to concentrate as it demonstrates a compelling practical reason for rejecting the cultural package that the RH bill represents. The following is part of a longer paper that includes a wider review of the scientific evidence about condoms and AIDS.

For all the Church haters out there

This was originally posted on this blog on May 29, 2011 at 8:04 PM. Newer articles below.

For all the Church haters, unfreethinkers, glib soundbite-repeaters, pilosopos and fashionably anti-clerical university kiddos and coffee-shop philosophizers out there. You think that the Church is utterly useless, eh? Please explain this article to me. (Try taking a look at THIS POST as well.)

Church operating 117,000 centers for AIDS patients worldwide

Vatican City, May 27, 2011 / 03:07 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care reported that the Catholic Church is currently running 117,000 centers to care for AIDS patients throughout the world.

Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski told L’Osservatore Romano that in the past 30 years, more than 60 million people have contracted HIV, mostly in Africa. He spoke to the Vatican paper on the eve of a congress on the treatment and prevention of HIV and AIDS.

The conference is taking place May 27-28. It was organized by the Good Samaritan Foundation, instituted by Blessed John Paul II in 2004 and entrusted to the Pontifical Council for Health Care.

He underscored the testimony of “numerous health care workers and volunteers who, in their courageous care for the sick … have themselves contracted the infection.”

He also highlighted the work by Blessed Teresa of Calcutta and the late Cardinal John Joseph O’Connor of New York, “who promoted numerous heath care centers for AIDS victims” and “many treatment and assistance programs in the United States and in other poor countries.”

The congress is intended to respond to the questions of “many bishops who contact our dicastery in order to receive constant help, with material assistance but above all with information on the latest advances in science in the fight against this disease,” Archbishop Zimowski said.

The objectives of the congress include the improvement of pastoral and health care for AIDS victims and the encouragement of the developed world to show solidarity with poor countries, “as too many people die without access to the treatment they need, especially antiretrovirals” currently available only in developed countries.

In 2008, then-president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care, Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, reported that 27 percent of institutions around the world caringfor AIDS patients are Catholic; 44 percent are governmental; 11 percent are operated by NGOs; and 8 percent are run by other religious confessions.