Alarmed by the lack of support for their advocacy to ban the airing of commercial advertisements over mass media, pro-life groups in the Philippines are preparing to take their cause to the streets to drum up greater awareness and support.

It's time we take to the streets and undertake mass actions to press our cause, said Rene Josef C. Bullecer, national director for AIDS-Free Philippines (AFP).

In a joint press statement distributed to media after the forum, AFP claimed The advertisement of condoms and contraceptives on the Philippine television and radio runs counter to the gains we have achieved through these years.

"Since the government has not planned anything for National Pro-Life Week, we took it upon ourselves to launch this campaign to ban commercial ads for condoms and contraceptives over mass media," Bullecer said. This is against the constitution, the KBP Code, our cultural and religious tradition.

The petition to ban condom and contraceptive ads over mass media was submitted last January 21, 2008 by HLI, FMAF, and other pro-life groups to the Advertising Board, the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) among others.

In the ensuing lively discussion actively participated by the media men present, the group said that in the absence of a proven vaccine or cure against HIV/AIDS, Abstinence and Chastity are still the best proven and most effective weapons against it.

Twenty of Manila's poorest residents have filed a legal challenge against what they say is a ban on contraception.

The group - 16 women and four of their husbands - are fighting a policy which they say denies them access to condoms, to the pill and other effective forms of family planning. This has had a devastating effect on their lives, they argue, causing unwanted pregnancies, pushing them further into poverty and harming their health and wellbeing.

More than 80% of Filipinos are Roman Catholics and the Church is hugely influential. Abortion is banned and President Gloria Arroyo openly backs the Church's anti-contraception stance.

The case has sparked debate in the Philippines where, says Professor Michael Tan, chair of the anthropology department at the University of the Philippines, there is no national policy on family planning.

Previous attempts to pass laws requiring government funding for services like family planning and Aids prevention have been blocked by conservatives, Tan says. This has left crucial decisions in the hands of local officials and resulted in a very mixed picture nationwide - so this case is very significant: People recognise that the courts must decide once and for all whether local government officials can unilaterally ban family planning services.

The policy at the centre of the controversy was introduced in February 2000 by the then Manila City Mayor Jose Atienza, a staunch Catholic. He backed "natural" family planning and called the use of alternative contraceptives a very, very destructive practice which ruins Filipino values.

Atienza passed Executive Order 003, which upholds natural family planning not just as a method but as a way of self-awareness in promoting the culture of life while discouraging the use of artificial methods of contraception. Although carefully worded to avoid an outright prohibition on "artificial" contraception, it was interpreted as such by city health officials, campaigners say.

Condoms and pills - which had been free - disappeared from local health centres. Hospitals turned down requests for sterilization operations. Many health workers stopped providing any information whatsoever on contraception.

Atienza is no longer mayor - he is now secretary for the Department of Environment - and his replacement Alfredo Lim is currently looking at the issue. But EO 003 remains in place and there are no plans to start providing free contraceptives again - not even condoms for sex workers.

Lawyers for the group - from Philippine-based rights organisations LIKHAAN and Reprocen, and the US-based Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) - argue that EO 003 has caused "serious and lingering damage" to residents. The policy has hit poorest people the hardest, they say, forcing people to choose between a packet of pills or food for their families.

The plaintiffs argue that EO 003 violates the constitution - which gives couples the right to plan a family in accordance with their beliefs - as well as several international conventions to which the Philippines is a signatory.

Pope Benedict said that the distribution of condoms aggravates the Aids crisis, as he embarked on his first trip to Africa.

While en route from Rome to his first stop, Cameroon, the Pope said that the condition was a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems.

Speaking on board his official plane, the pontiff insisted that the Roman Catholic Church is in the forefront of the battle against Aids, advocating sexual abstinence and fidelity within marriage as a way of fighting the disease.

Update: AIDS Aggravator

19th March 2009.  Based on article from timesonline.co.uk, Thanks to Alan

The Vatican backtracked yesterday on the Pope’s rejection of condoms as a means of preventing Aids — a decision interpreted by some as a rare admission of papal fallibility.

On Tuesday he told reporters accompanying him on his trip to Africa that Aids was a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, and that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems. Taken aback by outrage worldwide, the Holy See altered the Pope’s remark yesterday to read that condoms merely “risked” aggravating the problem.

L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, said in a front-page editorial that the media had reduced the Pope’s trip to just one aspect, the controversy over how to combat Aids.

Jon O’Brien, president of the US-based Catholics for Choice, welcomed the change as an admission that the Pope was not infallible on the issue and was willing to acknowledge his mistakes. The Pope has now admitted that he is unsure as to whether condoms will help alleviate the spread of HIV. Where there is doubt there is freedom and Catholics can now make up their own minds as to whether they can use them or not. Indeed, the vast majority of Catholics have already made this call and use condoms to protect themselves and their partners against sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.

We call on the Pope to revisit the teachings on condoms with a view to lifting the ban at the earliest possible moment. In his review, we want him to include experts who are unequivocal that condoms do in fact help prevent the spread of HIV.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor wrote to the Times complaining about a cartoon it had published in relation to the Pope's unhelpful comments about condoms in Africa.

In an attempt to deflect attention from the Pope's stupidity, Murphy O'Connor tried the usual trick of trying to turn the Church into the persecuted victim. He wrote: I was appalled at the tasteless cartoon depicting Pope Benedict XVI. No newspaper should show such disrespect to a person who is held in high esteem by a large proportion of Christians in the world. To pillory the Pope in this way is totally unacceptable.

The medical journal the Lancet has accused Pope Benedict of distorting scientific evidence to promote Catholic doctrine following his remarks about condom use and HIV.

The attack — which also said that the pope did not know what he was talking about and had put millions of lives at risk — followed his statement last week during a visit to Africa that the use of condoms increased HIV infection rates. This was later amended by the Vatican, which said that condom use merely increased the risk of transmission.

Today's Lancet editorial said the Pope's statement was outrageous and wildly inaccurate.

It added: By saying that condoms exacerbate the problem of HIV/Aids, the pope has publicly distorted scientific evidence to promote Catholic doctrine.

Whether the pope's error was due to ignorance or a deliberate attempt to manipulate science to support Catholic ideology is unclear ... When any influential person, be it a religious or political leader, makes a false scientific statement that could be devastating to the health of millions of people, they should retract or correct the public record. Anything less from Pope Benedict would be an immense disservice to the public and health advocates, including many thousands of Catholics who work tirelessly to try and prevent the spread of HIV/Aids worldwide.

Update: Pope on the Defensive

23rd April 2009. Based on article from google.com

In a strongly worded statement, the Vatican defended the pope's view that condoms aren't the answer to Africa's AIDS epidemic and could make it worse.

Belgium's ambassador to the Holy See lodged the formal protest Wednesday, prompting the Vatican Secretariat to issue its tough statement denouncing the Belgian vote.

The Vatican deplored the fact that a parliamentary assembly should have thought it appropriate to criticize the Holy Father on the basis of an isolated extract from an interview, separated from its context.

It said Benedict's remarks to reporters had been used by some groups with a clear intent to intimidate, as if to dissuade the pope from expressing himself on certain themes of obvious moral relevance and from teaching the church's doctrine.

The Vatican said the criticism of the pontiff was followed by an unprecedented media campaign in Europe extolling the value of condoms in fighting AIDS while ignoring Benedict's message about the need for responsible sexuality and to care for those suffering from AIDS.

The statement was the latest sign of the Vatican's increasing defensiveness and frustration as it tries to get Benedict's message out.

Carla Bruni has issued a scathing attack on Pope Benedict XVI saying that she has allowed her Catholic faith to lapse because of his approach to contraception in Africa.

France's First Lady said that the Church's teachings had left her feeling profoundly secular.

She departed from her post's traditional religious neutrality to accuse the Pope of damaging countries like Africa with his stance on birth control.

The Italian-born former supermodel risked angering believers in France and beyond by declaring that the Pontiff's proclamations showed that the Church needed to evolve.

Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy said: I was born Catholic, I was baptised, but in my life I feel profoundly secular. I find that the controversy coming from the Pope's message – albeit distorted by the media – is very damaging. In Africa it's often Church people who look after sick people. It's astonishing to see the difference between the theory and the reality. I think the Church should evolve on this issue. It presents the condom as a contraceptive which, incidentally, it forbids, although it is the only existing protection," she told Femme Actuelle, the women's magazine.

The comments will cause Mr Sarkozy embarrassment in a country where, despite the separation of Church and State, a majority of the population was born Catholic.

The supposedly non-political Catholic Church is agitating to get the Health Secretary of the Philippines, Esperanza Cabral, sacked because she authorised the distribution of condoms on Valentine's Day in the fight against Aids.

Archbishop Ramon Arguelles said on the Church-run Radio Veritas: It is immoral for a government official to support the distribution of condoms which we know do not really reduce or stop the spread of HIV-AIDS.

Another bishop, Dinualdo Gutierrez, joined the attack when he said Cabral should not remain as health secretary. Gutierrez said Cabral was not a good Catholic — if she was one in the first place — if she backs the distribution of the prophylactics.

Ms Cabral responded by saying that the Catholic Church can be vicious at times, but she intended to continue defying it. Of course, I am afraid of the Church. They are very powerful and they can sometimes be very vicious. I'm not exactly one who likes to live dangerously, Cabral told a local TV station. However, she said that she'd rather live dangerously than do nothing against the very alarming rise in the number of HIV/AIDS cases in the Philippines.

Data from the Department of Health (DOH) showed a total of 4,424 HIV/AIDS cases from 1984 to December 2009. The highest number was recorded in 2009 with a total of 835 cases. At the rate we are going, in 3 years, we are going to have more than 30,000 people with HIV/AIDS in the Philippines, the health secretary said.

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has called for a complete ban on condom ads in the country, claiming that condoms only imperil the morality of the youth.

In a statement, CBCP President Nereo Odchimar said the condom business is a multimillion dollar industry that heavily targets the adolescent market, at the expense of morality and family life.

Condom advertisements should be banned in television, radio, movies, newspapers, magazines, and public places, as they desensitize the youth's delicate conscience and weaken their moral fiber as future parents, Odchimar said in a statement on the CBCP website.

The CBCP president questioned the Philippine government's thrust to promote condom use to combat the rising number of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) cases in the country. He said condoms should be required to have warning labels that say Condoms may fail to protect from AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

Odchimar said it was unjust for government to use the money of Catholic taxpayers for purposes that are against their moral beliefs. He said the funding and effort involved in promoting condoms should rather be used to fight diseases that afflict millions of people in the country each year, such as diarrhea, bronchitis, pneumonia, tuberculosis, cancer, hypertension and influenza.