Four likely palace contenders in favor of contraception

While they are against abortion, at least four contenders for president in the 2010 elections are in favor of making safe contraceptives accessible to the public in order to help the country achieve the Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs. The Catholic Church, which strongly opposes the use of contraceptives to curb population growth, has warned the Christian faithful against voting for candidates who advocate artificial means of birth control.

Senators Francis Escudero and Richard Gordon, former President Joseph Estrada and environmentalist Nicanor Perlas on Tuesday all agreed that women should be given medical assistance and educated with all the safe options when it came to taking care of themselves and their family.

The four wannabes made the statements during the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Leaders Forum held at the Asian Institute of Management in Makati City (Metro Manila). The forum noted that 11 Filipino mothers die every day in giving birth. Improving maternal health is goal number 5.

Escudero said, “Nobody should die by giving life. The government should make sure that all options should be made available for Filipino mothers to enable them to provide the necessary vitamins and nutrition that they need to nurture their baby inside their womb that is allowed in their religion.”

Estrada was also open to the use of contraceptives, noting that most Filipinos are not feeling the dividends of economic growth because of rapid population growth.

“The government is always addressing the shortage of everything, from classrooms, teachers, nurses, doctors and other professionals because of the population growth,” he said.

Gordon also noted that besides contraceptives, the hundreds of thousands of nursing graduates should be of assistance to pregnant women in the countryside to improve maternal health.

“Having contraceptives available on the shelf will not only give our women better opportunity in life, but will also result in quality population,” he said.

Only JC de los Reyes of Ang Kapatiran opposed the idea, saying that sex is procreation, not recreation, and that contraceptives are dangerous to women’s health.

Stand on ‘jueteng’

The four contenders were also asked on their take on legalizing jueteng to address widespread poverty in the country, but only Estrada bought the idea.

According to the former president, he was initially against the illegal-numbers game, until he saw the plight of ordinary Filipinos who depend on it during his short-lived presidency.

He cited that there are about 200,000 people employed in jueteng from Regions I to V alone, not counting their families who depend on them.

“I am for its legalization until the time that we can create enough jobs for these people who need to feed their hungry stomachs. As of now, they have no other choice, where will they go?” Estrada asked.

The former leader, who has been accused of allowing rampant operations of jueteng and accepting jueteng payola by Sen. Panfilo Lacson, also noted that he does not see any reason why jueteng should not be legalized when casinos, cockfighting and even lotto are sanctioned by the government.

“Why is it that the game of the rich is legal, and jueteng is illegal? Is it because jueteng is the game of the poor? We should not have double standards,” Estrada said. –Llanesca T. Panti, Reporter, Manila Times