After Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Esperanza Cabral distributed condoms on Valentine's Day, she incurred the ire of some Catholic bishops who called her “immoral” and called for her resignation, since they said “condoms don’t prevent the spread of HIV-AIDS.” “Of course, I am afraid of the Church,” Cabral said on ANC’s Dateline Philippines, “They are very powerful and they can sometimes be very vicious.” But, she says, the Philippines is in a state of an HIV/AIDS epidemic and “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.” She says the DOH will also soon give away contraceptive pills and adequate reproductive health information to interested couples. She stressed, “I think it’s the right thing to do in order to promote the health of the people and that is a mandate the DOH has. We are just doing what we are supposed to do.” She says the DOH will continue protecting the people’s health while the Church should take care of the people’s morality.
Supporters of Sec. Cabral have put up a Facebook fan page called “We support Sec. Esperanza Cabral for curbing HIV and unwanted pregnancies” which currently has close to a thousand fans.
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