“Don’t use condoms because they don’t feel good.” No one who knows anything about sexual health would say something like this, but Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said exactly that (in Filipino) on Tuesday, in an address advocating family planning, no less.
For Duterte, contraceptive pills are in but condoms are out.
He said the statement in Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport while addressing overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who had just arrived home from Kuwait.
READ: Government bans OFW deployment to Kuwait, considers China as an alternative destination
He told them that many of the country’s problems like hunger and unemployment can be solved if there was no overpopulation and encouraged the crowd of mostly women to use pills.
“I’m not kidding, just follow the government’s program. There are pills for free,” Duterte said.
But he followed this up by blasting condoms and telling them not to use them. He even illustrated his problem with condoms using a piece of candy. “Here, eat this but don’t unwrap it…eat it. That’s how condoms are,” he said.
But as you know, contraception is just one reason to use condoms — protecting one’s self from sexually transmitted infections is another.
In August, the United Nations’ health ministry found that the Philippines has the highest HIV infection growth rate in the Asia-Pacific region. In 2016, there were 10,500 Filipinos with HIV, up from 4,300 just six years before. This HIV epidemic is happening in the Philippine as the number of infections are going down in the rest of the region.
And in the Philippines, where many see using condoms as a hassle, adding stigma to condom use could be deadly. From July to August last year, there were 118 reported deaths linked to HIV/AIDS and experts believe the rise in infections is caused by low condom use.
Having a very influential president say condoms “don’t feel good” won’t help solve that problem.
