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