Reproductive health (RH) advocates on Friday braved the rains to distribute condoms to passersby to protest the detention of famed tourist guide Carlos Celdran and the Catholic Church's stand against artificial contraception. According to the website of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), Celdran was detained on Thursday after holding a protest inside the Manila Cathedral while an interfaith prayer service was going on. Celdran who was dressed as the Filipino national hero Jose Rizal, was arrested after he started shouting inside the cathedral that the Catholic Church should stop meddling in government affairs, especially in its birth control programs. Celdran held his protest in front of the altar, a few meters away from Papal nuncio Archbishop Edward Joseph Adams, Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales, and other prelates. Celdran is a known advocate of the controversial RH bill and is usually seen distributing condoms to residents of Intramuros in Manila. The Manila Cathedral is also in Intramuros.
On Friday, in two separate rallies in Mendiola and Intramuros in Manila, RH advocates expressed their support for Celdran and President Benigno Simeon Aquino III, who recently received the Church's ire for his stance on informed choice and family planning. The protesters included members of Likhaan Center for Woman’s Health, Democratic Socialist Women of the Philippines, Filipino Free Thinkers, and Akbayan, including former Akbayan Rep. Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel. Earlier in the day, placard-bearing rallyists conducted a program at the foot of Mendiola bridge, near the entrance to Malacañang Palace in Manila, after handing out contraceptives to the public. The group expressed dismay at the Church for lobbying against the enactment of the RH bill. The protesters claimed that contraceptives, particularly condoms, are not only for family planning but also for protection from diseases like the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. They also reminded the bishops about the separation of the Church and the State. The protesters said they would continue supporting Aquino’s pro-reproductive health agenda and vowed to conduct bigger rallies to inform the people about the benefits of family planning. Another batch of rallyists held a protest in front of San Agustin Church, also in Intramuros, before noon. After that, they walked towards the office of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, distributing condoms while on their way.
Known advocate of RH bill On Thursday, Celdran, screamed inside the Manila Cathedral “Stop getting involved in politics" before he was taken away by Manila police at around 3:30 p.m. Celdran was also holding a placard with a sign bearing the word “Damaso,"a reference to a character in the novel “Noli Me Tangere" written by Rizal. In the novel, Padre Damaso was a Catholic priest who had a child with a rich married woman. According to the CBCP website, Celdran's protest happened before a Mass marking the second anniversary of the “May They Be One Bible" campaign, an ecumenical program that seeks to distribute five million Bibles for poor Filipino families. Celdran was detained at the Manila Police District precinct in Ermita for violating Article 133 of the Revised Penal Code. On Friday, after spending the night at a police precinct, a still-defiant tour guide, Carlos Celdran, vowed to continue supporting the RH bill. Celdran also said he does not fear excommunication from the Catholic Church for his beliefs, saying he can join other religious groups. "Obvious naman na magagalit sila (pero ang) hindi ko alam, ang simbahan magpapakulong ng tao," he said in an interview on dzBB radio Friday. (I expected the Church to get mad but I did not expect the Church would have people jailed.)
RH bill 96 The reproductive health bill has been a contentious social issue in the country because it pits two powerful sectors against each other -- the church on the one hand and on the other, a well-funded and determined development NGO sector backed by government technocrats. It is estimated that 80 percent of the country's population are baptized Catholics. According to the National Statistics Office, there were 88.57 million Filipinos as of August 2007. The projected population for 2010 is 94.01 million. The Catholic Church promotes only natural family planning and is opposed to the use of artificial birth control methods such as condoms and birth-control pills, saying these could lead to promiscuity and a rise in abortion cases. RH advocates say natural family planning methods have not proven to be as reliable as artificial means of birth control.
End contraceptive mentality Earlier, Philippine bishops urged Aquino to reject current policies that promote artificial contraception to control the country’s population. CBCP President Nereo Odchimar said the government must protect the sanctity of life by putting an end to contraceptive mentality. Odchimar said the bishops hope the Aquino administration will not pursue programs that promote the use of contraceptives such as condoms and pills. The Catholic Church accepts only natural family planning (NFP) methods. The NFP has two distinct forms: * Ecological breastfeeding (a form of child care that normally spaces babies about two years apart on the average), and * Systematic NFP (a system that uses a woman’s signs of fertility to determine the fertile and infertile times of her cycle).
– VVP, GMANews.TV 
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