The cause, not the remedy

My articles on artificial contraceptives never fail to elicit controversies. Sometimes there are even “violent” reactions that have nothing to do at all with the realities and the facts brought out and backed up by research and studies. Obviously these reactions come from people who could not accept anything contrary to what they have already framed in their minds. Truth must really hurt.

Others skirt the issue or cite studies that are already obsolete like the WHO report and the Johns Hopkins laboratory findings that condoms are effective in preventing HIV/AIDS and that the viruses of these diseases do not pass through intact latex condoms even if stretched. These studies are not only obsolete but obviously contrary to the recent findings by the Polymer Properties/Chemistry Section of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington D.C. which found that that the diameter of the microscopic holes of condoms are 500 to 700 times bigger than the HIV/AIDS viruses which means therefore that they can easily pass through and infect the sex partner.

Thus it is not even farfetched to connect the reported alarming rise in HIV/AIDS cases here to the free and open use of condoms; that the number of HIV/AIDS incidents are rising in this country to near epidemic proportion precisely because more people are now using condoms. This conclusion is based on the fact that it is only when condoms were openly and aggressively advertised and freely used that the number of HIV/AIDS cases has risen to alarming proportions.

Actually the issue in this controversy is not whether condoms are effective in preventing HIV/AIDS but whether it is 100% effective and therefore safe. The unwary public should not be deluded into believing that if they use condoms, they will not contract these harmful and fatal diseases. This is precisely one of the objectionable features of the RH bill which allegedly aims to promote “safe sex” by making available the entire range of artificial contraceptives especially condoms that do not really ensure safe sex and certain birth control pills that have already been shown to cause or induce abortion or lead to abortion. Unfortunately, our very own Health Secretary Cabral seems to convey this same message when she aggressively promotes the use of condoms and even distributes them for free despite the non-passage of the RH bill.

The government or the DOH Secretary must not close their eyes and should also try to see that there may really be something wrong with the government’s campaign to promote condoms. Aside from the Catholic Church, other people have already expressed their view on the matter. Let us consider their views also like this one from Mr. Rudy Coronel of Batangas:

“With due respect, Health Secretary Cabral’s recent pronouncements are outstanding in its scandalous innovativeness and misplaced priorities. It is clear she simply wants to do that which she thinks Flavier and the rest of her all-male predecessors combined had not dared to pioneer in their respective times. That, she believes, is by openly distributing free condoms and contraceptive pills to the public. I do not know in others’ but in my book she is virtually shouting to the four winds: “Come all ye, ladies and gentlemen, you may now freely indulge in marital and non-marital sex to your heart’s desires.” If that is not promoting nationwide promiscuity in an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic nation, I don’t know what is. Even the already too desperate promoters of the RH Bill — desperate because the bill has continued to gather dust in the last three Congresses — have not gone that far; at best, they could only advocate the stocking of ample contraceptive supplies in public health centers.

Quite ironically, against this backdrop, 75 Filipinos are dying from Tuberculosis everyday (the DOH knows this full well) — repeat: dying, not merely infected, and so its statistical incidence or prevalence should surely be far more alarming than that of HIV/AIDS. TB is, and continues to be, this country’s number one killer-disease since time immemorial, prevalent in depressed communities where people can ill afford its treatment’s very prohibitive cost. I would have liked that the Department of Health had devoted equal time, effort, budget and media highlight against this national ailment. Well, of course, some characters delight more in controversial issues — where, as in show-biz, they become the talk of the town. I am not saying Sec. Cabral is one of them.

Meanwhile, I am afraid the much ballyhooed objective behind giving away free condoms to the public may eventually end up in vain. Condoms are not new to us. They were originally introduced in the Philippines by American soldiers soon after the last world war. But truth to tell, then and now, they have not become as widely adhered to by married couples as by unmarried ones. Most of the latter, to be honest, do even shy away from condoms. Why? Simply because — please pardon my rather inelegant candor — condoms do not guarantee the full sexual satisfaction that is offered by natural coitus. Most everybody has experienced, and will attest to, this indisputable fact — well, except nuns and priests, of course. Even worse, wouldn’t you be flabbergasted that, in the aftermath of the DOH’s continuing open distribution of free condoms to the public, some young boys and girls had been seen playing with them, used or unused, as if they were toy balloons?”

All told, it is obvious that condoms have no social, economic and health benefits for our people. On the contrary, they encourage debauchery and licentiousness in our society that may lead to the spread of HIV/AIDS since they are not 100% effective. It is also not correct to say that the moral or religious aspect of this controversy is disadvantageous to our country. On the contrary, this aspect is more beneficial to us as it may indeed be the safer way to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. There is no dilemma here at all. –Jose C. Sison (The Philippine Star)