Church and politics have been at odds for weeks in the Philippines. Background is the draft law on "Reproductive Health". An event declared the "grandmother of all protests" this Friday in central Manila was the culmination of a campaign by the bishops against the law.
About 20.000 Catholics demonstrated on Friday (25.03.2011) in Manila against the draft law on contraception and sex education in schools. With statues of the Madonna and banners with slogans such as "No to the Reproductive Health Bill – Yes to Life," they responded to the Philippine bishops' call for a protest demonstration. On the same day, the Philippine Congress deliberated on the so-called Reproductive Health Act.
"All Filipinos, unite for life!"With this urgent appeal to stand up for life in the name of God, the Archbishop of Manila, Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales, had earlier called for a prayer demonstration against the "Reproductive Health" bill in nearly full-page newspaper ads.
Among other things, the bill would provide sex education in schools and allow hospitals and health centers to prescribe contraceptives and give them free to the poor. In addition, medical and social care for young mothers and pregnant women is to be improved. Legalization of abortion is not included in the bill – although the church also campaigns against it in statements and sermons.
"Let parents educate their children"
Bishops reject the bill outright, even though it explicitly includes education on natural contraception. "The bill puts a stronger emphasis on artificial contraception through condoms and the pill," Bishop Nereo Odchimar of Tandag, president of the bishops' conference, said Thursday at a service for lay Catholic organizations at Manila Cathedral. Henrietta De Villa, former ambassador of the Philippines to the Vatican, also sees parental rights violated. "Parents should educate their children, not the schools."
Individual bishops have even threatened President Benigno Aquino and other supporters of the bill with excommunication. Bishop Odchimar, however, initially toned down such threats. At the end of February, however, the church withdrew from talks with the government and parliament on the bill. "We have suspended dialogue," Odchimar says, but adds, "The door can be reopened."
For proponents, the law should pave the way for education about AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases. The Philippines is among seven countries worldwide where the number of HIV infections and AIDS cases continue to rise. A Department of Education study also found that 71 percent of young women and nearly 36 percent of young men suffer from genital diseases. Estimates put the figure at 500.000 abortions per year, of which 90.000 ended with health problems for mother.
One of the most populous countries
Most debated, however, is supporters' argument that birth control is a way to combat extreme poverty in the Philippines. With more than 90 million inhabitants, the island nation is now the twelfth most populous country in the world. 44 percent of Filipinos live below the poverty line. If population growth is not limited, the United Nations warns, the country will no longer be able to feed its citizens by 2025 at the latest.
Bishop Odchimar strongly rejects a "direct link between poverty and population growth"; he says there is no scientific evidence for this. This position meets with incomprehension from experts. "Without limiting population growth, successful poverty reduction is hardly conceivable, even with very successful and responsible economic and social policies," says, for example, Peter Koppinger, representative of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Manila, in a personal statement.
How the tough wrangling between church and state will end is uncertain. Among the Filipino population, at any rate, support for opponents of the controversial law is rather thin. In polls, two-thirds of citizens favored the new ruling. Much depends on how many supporters the bishops can mobilize for Friday's street protests.