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Government hands out free condoms against AIDS, but tolerates prostitution, Church says

by Santosh Digal
Health Department began handing out free condoms on 14 February, this despite a protest by Catholic bishops and church members. According to the director of the Department of Clinical Pathology at a Catholic Hospital, the rising rate of AIDS is not the hallmark of an epidemic and condoms cannot solve the problem.
Manila (AsiaNews) – Despite the staunch protest of the Catholic Church, the Department of Health on 14 February began handing out condoms in some Manila neighbourhoods with the aim of curbing the spread of HIV-AIDS. However, Catholics argue that condoms do not solve the problem. Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral blames the Church for the spread of the disease and insists that her department would not stop its distribution programme.

Bishops have criticised the plan to hand out condoms, and have called for her resignation. Unlike the government, Catholics believe that abstinence and the sanctity of the human body are the best ways to stop the spread of AIDS.

“In order to stop the rise in AIDS cases, the country should ban prostitution and free sex rather than hand out condoms,” said Mgr Oscar Cruz, retired bishop of Lingayen-Dagupan.

“Cabral is trying to force the Church to be silent,” he said. “And yet, curiously, the government allows prostitution houses which are one of the locations where the disease spreads.”

In 2007, one AIDS case was recorded per day; last year, it was two. In the last two months, it is up to four a day. Despite the rise, the Philippines are the Asian country with lowest number of AIDS patient, about 4,400 patients out of a population of 90 million.

Dr Antonio Raymundo, chairman of the Department of Clinical Pathology at the Catholic University of Santo Tomas Hospital, said an increase in the number of HIV cases does not indicate that it is epidemic. In his view, handing out condoms would not solve the problem.

However, Secretary Cabral said that HIV-AIDS has become an “epidemic, not just a scare,” and that her department would continue to give away free condoms to people who need them in order to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.