MANILA - When Quezon City Councilor Joseph Juico was approached to become the main sponsor of a population management and reproductive health ordinance for the city, he had no idea that he would become a lightning rod for persecution by the powerful Catholic Church in the city.

In an interview with abs-cbnNEWS.com, Juico said he and 24 other city councilors had to weather a campaign by the Catholic Church to prevent the passage of the ordinance that would grant easier access to contraceptives.

Most of the tactics were less than subtle. Streamers that branded the councilors as "anti-life" were hoisted outside church buildings while priests devoted their homilies to lambast the ordinance, complete with Powerpoint presentations.

One archdiocese issued three circular letters that criticized the councilors for promoting abortion. In one church, lay leaders distributed flyers and put up sign-up sheets to denounce the measure.

The worst part, according to the 31-year-old councilor, was when a Catholic priest from the archdiocese of Cubao told him that he could be denied communion if he insisted on pushing through with the ordinance.

“It was during a meeting with several members of the archdiocese. We were discussing the Church’s stand on artificial contraceptives and birth control methods. Afterwards, one of the priests came up to me and said, ‘We could deny you communion if you do this.’ I was shocked,” he said.

A devout Catholic, Juico said he began hearing Mass outside the city after local parishes began to make him feel like a leper. Even his parents -- former Agrarian Reform Secretary Philip Juico and President Aquino's former Appointments Secretary Margarito Juico -- began to worry as their son was branded a "tool of the devil."

He said the increased negativity eventually led him to transfer his August 2008 wedding from Quezon City to a church outside Metro Manila.

“I used to hear Mass at Twin Hearts on Times Street, West Triangle. This is where Fr. Aris Sison, the [former] spokesperson of the archdiocese of Cubao, speaks. But since everything started, I don't hear Mass anymore at Quezon City. If I do attend, I stay at the very back of the church,” he said.

“When I heard that they had the right to refuse communion, I was caught off-guard. I was afraid. Ayokong mapahiya (I didn't want to be humiliated). If they could say that to my face, what would stop them from actually doing it even at my wedding? I spoke to different priests and they all told me that they could never deny me communion but I was really afraid. I just didn't want to come in front of a church and be denied communion.”

A taboo subject

Artificial birth control is often a taboo subject for leaders of the Catholic Church in the Philippines. In the capital city of Manila, a nine-year-old mayoral order that bans the teaching of artificial contraception in public health clinics has remained in effect even after a new mayor took over in 2007.

A reproductive health bill that aims to stem the country's birth rate has also languished in Congress for years after President Arroyo told lawmakers that she favors natural family planning. In some cities, couples who attend compulsory family planning seminars are taught that artificial contraception increases cancer risk and could make one go deaf.

Reproductive health advocates, however, point out that food stability and economic growth could take a hit as the Philippine population reaches more than 92 million before the end of 2009.

Benjamin de Leon, president of the Forum for Family Planning and Development, said the Catholic lobby is a big factor in the country's lack of a national policy on artificial family planning.

"Even former President Fidel Ramos says President Arroyo is subservient to the Church so she does not want to talk about artificial family planning. She has relegated this to the local government units for them to promote family planning methods in their own municipalities, cities and provinces," he said in an interview.

LaRainne Sarmiento, convenor of the Quezon City Anti-Poverty Integration Task Force (APITF), said Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte's push for a better quality of life for his constituents necessitated the need to push for the reproductive health ordinance.

"Quezon City is the largest city in Metro Manila in terms of land area. The largest district is District 2, Novaliches, where half of the population live. The poorest of Quezon City live in this district, which includes Payatas and Batasan Hills. According to the last census, the city's population grew from 2.173 million in the year 2000 to 2.68 million in 2007," she said.

Juico said population growth is aggravating problems such as unemployment, poverty and a housing shortage. In the Payatas community, families of six or seven people are living in shanties that could barely fit four or five at a time.

"In the squatters, I've seen families living in one room. They eat, sleep, play, watch TV and have intercourse in the same room. The kids are exposed to sex at a very early age and they become curious. When I'm campaigning, sometimes I approach pregnant women in these areas and ask how they are. When you're pregnant, you're supposed to be happy. These women, when you ask them, they say: 'This is my fifth child. I wish we could stop but we can't.' They don't look at pregnancy as a gift of God anymore but another mouth to feed," he said.

The Quezon City ordinance, which is dubbed the MP4 program, aims to address the city's burning issues of poverty, rapid population growth, and teenage pregnancies. The program allocates more than P10 million for basic services such as health and nutrition, training for counseling for government workers, peer counseling and effective parenting, adolescent health education for youth, sustained information dissemination to different barangays, family planning services and education, and livelihood generation and entrepreneurship programs.

A study using data from local health departments bears out the wisdom of relying on different methods of family planning. The study, conducted by Dr. Jonathan Flavier of the Cooperative Movement for Encouraging NSV (No-Scalpel Vasectomy), showed how maternal deaths in Quezon City decreased after the local government encouraged artificial contraceptive use starting in the year 2000.

On the other hand, maternal deaths in Manila have increased over the same period after the local government banned contraceptives and the teaching of modern family planning methods in public health centers.

"Supporting family planning reduces the deaths of women that are caused by getting pregnant too often or too many times, getting prenant at very young or very old ages, and when the woman is too sick or unable to nurture more children. We believe that part of the decreasing maternal deaths in Quezon City is due to their encouragement of family planning and reduced births per woman," he said.

Maternal Deaths per 100,000
Married Women of Reproductive Age

No stone unturned

Juico said he left nothing to chance when he submitted the ordinance in late 2007. After getting the go-ahead from lawyers that the proposal was not unconstitutional, he then conducted several public hearings to find out what people thought about the measure.

Bishop Reuben Abante, who headed a local Baptist group, backed the proposal but opposed the provision that mandated sex education for Grade 5 up to fourth year High School students. The ordinance later mandated sex education classes for high school students in state-sponsored schools only.

There was also a revision of terms used in the ordinance -- "sex education" became "adolescent health education," "traditional family planning" became "natural family planning," and "modern family planning" became "artificial family planning."

Caloocan Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez, however, said some provisions in the ordinance completely ran counter to the Catholic Church's teaching, such as state-sponsored purchase of contraceptives and sex education in classrooms.

"The Catholic Church is not against the policy of birth spacing or controlling the population. This is at the heart of responsible parenthood. It is up to the husband and wife to assess the situation of the family on how many children they want.The Catholic Church upholds the teaching that in matters of controlling conception, we are allowed only to make use of natural means that accepts the rhythm of the body and nature," he said.

Juico said the ordinance is virtually a continuation of an existing family planning program implemented since Belmonte became mayor in 2001. He also said various surveys have shown that majority of Filipinos support and are willing to use contraceptives.

More importantly, he said the ordinance does not promote or support abortion since it is a violation of the Revised Penal Code.

"There is nothing coercive about the ordinance. There are no penal provisions. Its goal is provide artificial contraception to those who need it but with a wholistic approach. When a couple wants to get a condom, we will give them a seminar first. We will teach them abstinence, be faithul and natural family planning. We will also teach them about artificial family planning methods including condoms. We will teach them all the different types of family planning, not just the artificial but the natural as well," he said.

Losing the Catholic vote

After various public consultations, the ordinance was passed on third and final reading on February 9, 2008. Mayor Belmonte signed the measure on the same month, making Quezon City one of the few local government units that has its own family planning ordinance.

The victory, however, came with a cost for Juico. After the ordinance was passed, a priest came to the councilor and said, "You no longer have the Catholic vote. We will no longer support you in the next election."

"I didn't know him. He could have been any priest from any of the parishes," confessed Juico, who is on his second term as councilor. "While I don't think that Catholics vote as a bloc, the Church is good at destroying a candidate."

He said one advice given to him at the early stage of the hearings was to wait until he was on his third term before proposing a controversial piece of legislation. That way, he would no longer need to worry about his chances re-election. "To be honest though, I never even thought of it. If I think about that, it will sway my pushing for this ordinance no matter how much it is needed. I would think of my own personal ambition more than the needs of the people," he said.

One thing that kept him going was the overwhelming support he got from various sectors. He said the ordinance has been praised by both women's groups, lay ministers and influential people inside the Church

"I was hearing mass in Santuario de San Antonio in Forbes Park. A lay minister approached me and asked, 'You're Councilor Juico, right?' I said yes and he said, 'I support your ordinance. I think it is a good ordinance. I am a lay minister here. We need that ordinance. We need to open the eyes of the Catholic Church,'" he said.