I’ve been a “corporate slave” for well over 6 years now. One of the things I hate the most is seeing the amount of money deducted from my monthly salary due to the withholding tax (around 30%). This money goes to the Philippine government and they basically decide how to spend that money to benefit the Filipino people. I wouldn’t mind seeing that money go into road development or to pay for the salaries of our police, military, and teachers. What I don’t understand is why we should be paying for condoms and pills which are being distributed right now by the Department of Health!
Yes, overpopulation is a problem. Yes, the HIV-AIDS epidemic is something we have to confront. But we won’t be able to do that by giving away condoms and pills! This is not a sustainable program. Does this mean that every year an amount of the Philippine budget will be spent on buying condoms and pills for distribution? That’s just insane and a total waste of money.
What we need is education and a more permanent and long-term solution to this issue. It can’t be solved by just throwing contraceptives to those who don’t do safe sex.
But wait… there’s more. 
This is a SERIOUS challenge not just to the government but for PARENTS, the CHURCH, and SCHOOLS. It’s not just about safe sex. The core problem is the promiscuous behavior of the youth. The rate of unwanted pregnancies are going higher and higher each year. For AIDS, let’s not forget that 50% of recorded cases come from the Call Center industry. Parents, churches, and schools – don’t just throw this problem to the government. Reinforce values and be good examples to your children/flock.
VALUES. VALUES. VALUES.
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there’s a public health component to this too. AIDS and such.
Giving out condoms is a short term solution true, but the HIV issue is already critical. The church right now does not have the moderating influence on the youth as it had before. The irony here is if the church had not hindered the passing of the earlier bills for RH, or stigmatizing RH proponents, we wouldn’t be in this mess. Example : western magazines have prominent Ads about Herpes, which is something that could make a kid think twice about having unprotected sex. I don’t think we even have data for herpes rate in the country.
Well, the money spent on condom is worth less than the amount spent on alleviating poverty. How much more money is needed to supplement already stretched resources because of a burgeoning population? A growing populace means more money needed to fund education, social services, utilities (water, power, transporation), security, etc, etc. If the existing population is already sharing on meager resources, how much more can we take if we add to our numbers?
Countries that remain hypocrites to birth control continue to lag behind.
While I believe too that condom is not the only answer, we need to accept the fact that we have have some real good sex education in this country. And we turn a blind eye to it. Poor us!
But if condom is one way to curb it, then so be it. A large number of our populace, especially those on the lower tier of income brackets, are the greatest contributor to our population malaise. If DOH can help curb population growth in that bracket, why not?
How outrageous is that! But I think one of your Facebook commenters got a point- our taxes were also used to fill the Ampatuan armory and condoms are nothing compared to it.
Still, this is so unFilipino.
@everyone: Yes, it’s critical but it only becomes such when we’re talking about unprotected sex with multiple partners.
Note that the aids epidemic is half in the call center industry. We’re not talking about D, E families here like what the program is about. (Please correct me if I’m wrong, I read somewhere that they only gave condoms to poor communities)
I agree with you that we need to address this – but I think the problem is much deeper than giving away condoms. Churches, schools, and parents need to realize that they play an important rule in curbing this problem – more important than the government. They have the most influence so they have to flex their muscles.
Again – it boils down to the loss of values. Something that we all have to restore, especially for our kids.
@jojo: That’s a different topic, hehe. But yeah that’s just sad.
@Jerome: Very good insight bro. Allow me some time to think about my reply.
Well, I believe that the reason that this is so is because of the stubbornness of the more conservative sectors of society regarding the matter of sex education. Given the lack of the government’s ability to curb sexual activity through more potentially successful means (like education), it has no other recourse than to continue existing programs (if I understand it correctly the “family planning” program of the government has been in existence for several years now), and take solace in the fact that at the very least, someone is doing something about the population/STD problem.