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Manila. The Philippine government on Sunday defended its policy of distributing free condoms to mark Valentine’s Day after influential senior church officials labelled it “vulgar.”

“It was about distributing HIV information to adults, adolescents. We had this ‘be careful’ Valentine’s campaign because of the rising number of HIV/AIDS [cases] in the country,” said Eric Tayag, head of the government’s epidemiology center.

Tayag said that Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral had instructed his team to come up with “an innovative way” of getting across the safe-sex message.

Tents and booths were set up at Manila’s flower market on Saturday and condoms and HIV/AIDS information were distributed.

“It is vulgar, it is lewd, it is gross. To what extent would they entice young people to be promiscuous?” archbishop Oscar Cruz said in an interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

The Roman Catholic Church forbids artificial birth control including condoms and has consistently opposed population control programs.

Bishop Teodoro Bacani was quoted in newspapers as saying that giving out condoms might only increase the number of HIV/AIDS cases, adding that the government should have promoted abstinence instead.

Tayag, however, said the government was trying to work with the church to stem the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, adding that “abstaining and being faithful are tenets we share with the church.”

While the incidence of HIV/AIDS in the Philippines is still relatively low, Tayag said there were signs it is increasing, with 126 new cases found in December, the highest level in one month in 25 years.

About 75 million Filipinos, out of a national population of 93 million, are Catholics, a legacy of the country’s Spanish colonial past.

 

Agence France-Presse