ARTICLES

Planned Parenthood Invades the Philippines

Abortion Group Recruits Local Filipinos for Missions to the Mother Country

BY ROBERT KUMPEL

On January 7, Ernie Flores founder and editor of the Filipino Press died at age 71. Although he was known locally as a supporter of population control, Flores was given a Catholic burial from Saint Mary's Catholic Church in National City. Recognized as staunch Catholics, Filipinos could once be assumed to march in step with Humanæ Vitæ, Pope Paul VI's encyclical condemning artificial contraception. But Flores was part of what could be growing moral shift in the Filipino community toward secular values and away from their Catholic identity.

Leading the charge toward instilling secular values in young Filipinos is Planned Parenthood. Along with the Women's Health Care Foundation and the ReachOut Foundation, Planned Parenthood has been working to transform clinics in the Philippines into "Centers for Excellence for Family Planning and Reproductive Health Services." This change has also meant training youth and adults as "peer educators" to preach the gospel of birth control in the Philippines.

The result has been Planned Parenthood missions to the Philippines, beginning in 2001, with young Filipinos recruited in San Diego to "educate their peers" in the mother country about artificial contraception. Mary Ellen Hamilton, vice president of community affairs for Planned Parenthood in San Diego, traveled to Manila in 2001 and 2004. Hamilton took delegations of young Filipinos with her (six in 2001, three in 2004) to train college students and anyone interested about birth control. "It's a very Catholic country," Hamilton said in a recent phone conversation, "and it's also a country with a very high population growth. Our focus is pretty much on birth control and education. They were very wonderful people. They were friendly, they like Americans, and they appreciate any help they can get."

"One of the things we suggested," Hamilton continues, "was that [the Filipino youths from San Diego] work with the University of the Philippines, because they hadn't really done anything at that level. So they were able to start work on the campus, just giving very general reproductive health information to the students who were very appreciative. One young man said, 'we're a very shy culture and don't easily like to talk about sexuality and I was a little nervous before this effort. Now I realize how much I needed to know and how little I did know and how important it is to know about one's own body.'"

The growing population and apparent lack of space was not lost on Hamilton's young assistants. Although Hamilton refused to share the names of any of the young people she accompanied to the Philippines, Planned Parenthood posts diary entries from their 2001 visit on their website. One participant wrote, "In the midst of this incredible chaos, we would come upon an immaculately kept little shrine to the Blessed Mother or the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Religious phrases and positive-thinking phrases abound. Churches are plentiful. So are anti-choice signs. The squatters live side by side with the more formal residents of Manila."

A young Filipino from National City who was on one of the trips wrote, "Both programs [ReachOut and Women's Health Care Foundation] took us to their various outposts, where people live in makeshift shanties some that are no bigger than a closet with two to three families living in each — where sifting through trash may bring them a meal or something to clothe them. One person's trash may be a treasure to someone else. Water is a luxury. Seeing the living conditions is one thing but to smell and hear brings it to a much different level. It's hard to imagine how the two programs have existed for so long because of religious influences in the Philippines. But yet they have survived and have grown. They continuously struggle to be the voice of people who have nothing."

If Filipinos can take a leadership role in teaching birth control, why are there no local Filipino pro-life groups to take the lead in what has traditionally been an immovable anti-population control stance in their community? Some leaders in the Filipino community insist that the Catholic faith is as strong as ever among their people, but others reflect a growing ambivalence between allegiance to their religious values and the secular values that surround them in America. Art Domingo, 67, is a Scripps Ranch entrepreneur, international consultant, and former executive with the Pinoy Business Directory, an online directory of Filipino businesses and organizations that is managed in Texas. He founded the Filipino-American Development Initiative, an activist organization that sponsors economic summits for Filipino entrepreneurs as well as financial literacy programs to educate Filipinos interested in business. Describing himself as a pro-life Catholic, Domingo thinks that there are no Filipino pro-life groups for the same reason his community tends to shy away from aggressive business tactics. "Filipinos are not as aggressive as other Asians. [We] have been very weak in standing up for issues like that. This is part of the activism that we want to push in our agenda with the Filipino-American Development Initiative. Filipinos have never gotten together on issues, even those that impact their own existence."

Though he says he's no fan of Planned Parenthood, Domingo has mixed feelings about their outreach in the Philippines. "I don't believe in Planned Parenthood. Their very name is a misnomer. The way they promote themselves is only about birth control, but they don't teach family management. They ought to teach parents how to bring up their children and how to motivate them to higher aspirations in life. I think I should leave the morality of this to the people who are doing it, because they feel that they are doing something good for the country. It pains me to see babies born and suffer there. I think there should be an opening of the eyes of the Catholic Church on this issue. I'm against abortion, because the baby is already conceived, but I am not against contraception because it prevents conception. I'm not against that, because it prevents suffering."

Domingo believes that Church and government corruption is what are most culpable for rampant poverty in the Philippines. "There is a need to control the population in the Philippines. The government cannot provide for the growing population. They've botched it up, they're corrupt and sometimes I wonder ... the Catholic Church has failed in developing morality in the Philippines. And I see the same story going on in South America as well. You have corrupt politicians who are supposed to be practicing Catholics, but they are cheating the poor."

Wilfredo "Willie" Racelis, 51, is the president of the Filipino-American Chamber of Commerce in San Diego and works as a financial representative with Foresters. Racelis considers himself a practicing Catholic and pro-life. He attends St. John of the Cross parish in Lemon Grove. Racelis thinks that no Filipino pro-life organizations exist because most Filipinos would get involved in pro-life activities through their parishes. Regarding young Filipinos fostering contraception in the Philippines, Racelis isn't pleased. "Using these young people in the Philippines is probably very effective. But I have to think it is wrong because of how people in the Philippines view people who go to the states. When they go back to the Philippines, they are usually held in high esteem, because they are usually more financially well off. You have become somebody. So when you present something different, they readily absorb it. Some of these people in the Philippines cannot easily discern by themselves what is good and what is right."

Dr. Lolita Dinoso Carter, 61, is the founder and director of the Samahan Philippine Dance Company. Carter is not a Catholic, but a member of the Philippine Independent Church (a.k.a. the Aglipayan Church) and confesses that she doesn't go to church. "I'm really not a very religious person. Personally, I'm pro-life, but up to a point. I favor abortion in certain cases, such as rape. I'm not entirely, fanatically pro-life."

When told that Planned Parenthood had been tapping young Filipinos to propagate birth control in Manila, Carter responded, "If they want to go, why not? I think there's a place for Planned Parenthood in the Philippines because the country is so overpopulated and there is so much poverty. They can't afford that much population. There are people dying of hunger because they don't have the means to feed them. It's not just Manila, the whole Philippines are overpopulated and this is because the Catholic Church is against abortion."

Gregory Alabado, 70, is a member of Mayor Dick Murphy's Asian/Pacific Islander advisory board. A retired Chula Vista public transit administrator, he is also a lifelong Catholic who serves as a lector at St. Rose of Lima Parish. He believes that the struggle of immigrating to America has only strengthened the faith of most Filipinos. "During our upbringing we are told that when we are in trouble or unsure about things that we should go to church and visit the Blessed Sacrament. You kneel down and you tell it to God."

Alabado is adamant about his pro-life position but is at a loss to explain why there are no Filipino pro-life organizations. "I don't think anyone has thought of organizing it. As far as being pro-life, I think it's just automatically assumed. There is the assumption that the fetus is life. I've never really thought about that before."

When it comes to Planned Parenthood promoting contraception in his homeland, Alabado is hesitant to criticize but instead points to institutional corruption in the Philippines. "You know, the Philippines has a growth in population much higher than most other countries in that region of Asia and it's really affecting the economy and the way people live. I really don't know. I'm torn between those two things. I think the Catholic Church could do a better job explaining its position."

Ken Perez is a popular Filipino graphic artist whose works can be viewed at Kilatzin. Perez, 35 and a new father, describes himself as "no longer a practicing Catholic." "It was CCD that drove me away. I would always have run-ins with the nuns. It seemed awfully restrictive as a kid. The dominance and overbearance of the Church always struck me the wrong way."

When it comes to questions of abortion and contraception, Perez admits he is "very ambivalent. I believe in the sanctity of life, but at the same time, I know that there are situations that arise where a woman would have to consider abortion as an option. I personally don't feel that it's my place to tell her not to."

Perez says one of his friends was a performer in a Planned Parenthood traveling group. "I believe there were two Filipinos in that touring group. I think they're within their rights to distribute contraception in the Philippines and to spread their propaganda or message —however you want to take it. It's up to whoever is receiving the message. As an American, I don't believe in censorship. I think they should be heard. It's up to the individual or the family whether to hear it or not."

The teachings of the Catholic Church, from Perez's view, have long been irrelevant for most Filipino-Americans. "It's never been adhered to — at least for the majority. It's not just birth control, but the whole attitude toward sexuality and drugs. Look at teen pregnancy. One thing that struck me with my friend, who performed with Planned Parenthood, was that you would always see a lot of pregnant teens and a good number of them were Filipinas. I have cousins up in L.A. and all of them were pregnant before the age of 20. Whether the Church prohibits birth control or not is almost a moot argument, because kids will do what kids do. You can present them with condoms, but it's not going to stop them one way or the other."

TOP