The Varsitarian

SOMETHING is amiss when the Department of Health (DOH), which should be the protector of public health, turns into a promoter of irresponsible and immoral behavior.

Such is the case with Esperanza Cabral, who replaced Thomasian Francisco Duque III in the DOH (he is now chairman of the Civil Service Commission, a constitutional body). While vowing to continue Duque’s “good programs,” Cabral, who was a disaster as a social welfare secretary during the Ondoy disaster last year, has arrogantly set aside his policy of not promoting artificial contraception because of its divisive nature. Instead, she has promoted “safe sex” in the guise of stemming the HIV-AIDS menace.

And so last February 14, Filipino couples received more than the usual stock of flowers and chocolates. Under Cabral’s orders, the DOH distributed condoms at the Dangwa flower center near UST. Instantaneously, a Catholic feast was blasphered by an agent of the State. When the bishops cried foul, the general media defended Cabral and cried, “Intolerance!”

It is typical of the irreverent and amoral press to invoke tolerance when in fact, it is they who are being intolerant to religion. In defending Cabral for making a mockery out of a Catholic feast, it joins the arrogant State in attacking religion.

It is also typical of somebody who has lived off taxpayer’s money as State university student and as a careerist to invoke the separation of Church and State when the Church objects to certain public policies on moral grounds. Cabral is simply stupid and arrogant— her stupidity abetting her arrogance. For the separation of Church and State means the non-establishment of religion: it is a constitutional principle to defend religion against the encroachments of the State. Did she not violate this when she used a Catholic feast to distribute condoms? Wasn’t she at the least insensitive and arrogant?

Alas, on the day reserved by the Catholic calendar to memorialize an ancient martyr whose sacred sacrifice has become emblematic of the selflessness and martyrdom that characterize authentic love, Cabral, an agent of the State, made a mockery of Church and the true meaning of love. Moreover she did this near UST and around the U-Belt where young people were seeking to find meaningful expressions to give us gifts to their beloved on the Day of Hearts. We could only surmise what Cabral gave her spouse and kids as Valentine’s gifts. Did she give them condoms? We pity them.

And what was the sacrilege for? Because of HIV-AIDS!

The panic about the rising HIV-AIDS cases in the Philippines— with some claiming that the disease has reached epidemic levels— should be discounted. Sure, the cases may have gone relatively high, reaching 4,424 cases last year, but the ratio of 530 in 100,000 people, as recorded by the HIV Behavioral and Serological Surveillance, is short of “alarming.”

Furthermore, studies have consistently proven the ineffectiveness of condoms to prevent HIV-AIDS transmission. Ten years ago when the DOH had been decrying low condom use, it painted the stark scenario that the HIV-AIDS incidence would balloon to 10,000. It is nowhere near that level exactly because the Church opposes condoms and promotes chastity and responsible behavior.

Hence, comparing the Philippine situation to Thailand— which has more than half a million HIV cases, excluding the 613,000 that have died from AIDS— would be hysterical.

Why Cabral would like to adopt Thailand’s radical “safe sex” programs is disconcerting. Thailand is the worst HIV-AIDS case in Asia exactly because of its unmitigated condom distribution, which basically is an indirect way of promoting its sex tourism. If Cabral wants to promote prostitution and sex tourism to earn dollars for her country, then she should have distributed condoms to whore houses, not at a floral market where UST and other young students sincerely seek ways to express the purity of their love.

But really, the Thai example reinforces the Catholic Church’s critique against “safe sex”— that it instills a false sense of security because condoms are not 100 percent safe. Cabral has admitted as much on a television debate, but insisted that condoms would do for now — just as drugs on hypertension are 70 percent effective but they would do just the same. Her argument is fallacious! Hypertension is not HIV-AIDS; it needs medication, HIV-AIDS needs prevention. But with condoms with a failure rate ranging from six percent to 37 percent, frequent safe sex increases the probability of one contacting the virus. Safe sex cultivates reckless behavior.

What Cabral is doing is to use the HIV-AIDS menace as a smokescreen for population control.

Recent demographics showed that the world does not have a “ballooning population.” What is really happening is a “popping” population, with less babies to replenish the aging populations of the world, as warned by Nobel-winning economists such as Gary Becker in the documentary, Demographic Winter.

Instead of focusing government resources on artificial birth control just to prevent a disease whose spread is arguably under control, why not direct the funds instead to other life-threatening sickness such as dengue, which reached a total of 2,232 cases, with 16 deaths during the first five months of 2008? Why not use health resources on checking poverty-induced tropical diseases?

And if economic growth is the concern of the State, it should find ways to solve poverty through projects and livelihood programs that would help families sustain life, not prevent it.

The “death” of the Reproductive Health Bill in Congress has been hailed by the Church and pro-life advocates. But it seems that Cabral has made use of her executive position to promote birth control in the guise of eradicating HIV-AIDS. And President Macapagal-Arroyo, a self-declared natural family planning advocate, seems to evade the issue by refusing to control her Cabinet minister’s arrogant ways.

At the very least, the President should stop Cabral from her condom-crazy ways by reprimanding her or kicking her out altogether. The position of health secretary is critical. Cabral is a discredit to an agency whose function is to help people take responsibility of their health and well-being, and not to promote “safe sex” and cultivate among the citizenry, especially the young, behavior run amok.