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English 3 Position Paper

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Final Requirement

in English 3
Position Paper

Topic: HIV/AIDS prevention

Issue: Giving of free condoms to all high school students in the Philippines as a solution to

growing number of HIV cases.

Stand: Against

Claims: Encourages students to indulge in premarital sex, will add to the expenses of the

Government, morality of the people will be questioned

Thesis Statement: Giving of free condoms to all high school students in the Philippines is a

program by the DOH which should not be implemented because it contradicts to the religious

beliefs of almost all of the people in our country. It will just encourage youth to engage in

premarital sex at an early age and will just add to the expenses of the government.

The news of the Department of Health (DOH) planning to give out condoms to all public
high school students in the Philippines shocked almost all of the citizens in our country. A

condom is a thin rubber covering that a man wears on his penis during sex in order to prevent a

woman from becoming pregnant or to prevent the spread of diseases (Merriam Dictionary) . This

news become a controversy and received a mixed opinion from the citizens. This program is

part of the DOH’s strategy to prevent the rapid increase of the number of HIV/AIDS cases

among youth in our country. According to Merriam Dictionary, HIV is either two retroviruses

that infect and destroy helper T cells of the immune system causing the marked reduction in their

numbers that is diagnostic of AIDS. It is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus. You can

get HIV from contact with infected blood, semen, or vaginal fluids. Another common way of

getting it is by sharing drug needles with someone who is infected with HIV. Data showed that

from 2011 to 2016, a total of 32,099 HIV cases were recorded and 9,066 of it are from ages 15 to

24 years old. According to the Health Secretary Paulyn Ubial (in press), proper counseling is

conducted first before the distribution of condoms. Though, this didn’t stop the people from

questioning the significance of the program.

This program should never be implemented in the Philippines. This will just widen the

curiosity of young people about matters that are not appropriate in their age. It will also

encourage the students to engage in sexual intercourse and will give them a false sense of

security and wrong information about sexual activities. We Filipinos are known to be a

conservative people. We should not be influenced of the liberated social behavior and culture of

other countries. If this will be implemented, sexual topics will be so easily spoke by young

people and it would be so easy for them to talk about nasty things. There will also be a high

chance that people will be disrespected, most especially the women. There is a big possibility

that cases of rape victims will increase and many vulnerable people will be forced to engage in

sexual activities.

Another reason why this program should not be implemented is that we are living in a

Christian country. According to Miller (2002), more than 86 percent of the population in the

Philippines are Roman Catholic, 6 percent belong to various nationalized Christian cults, and

another 2 percent belong to well over 100 Protestant denominations. Giving of free condoms to

the youth especially to the high school students means contradicting the religious beliefs of most

of the people in our country. For centuries, Christianity as a whole prohibited any form of

contraception because it considered any act that stood in the way of pregnancy which is an
affront to “God’s design” (Aran, 2016). This doesn’t mean that Christian church is promoting

pregnancy but this means that contraception is an unrighteous method that should not be done by

people. If a person is not ready to have a child yet, then they should restrain from doing sexual

intercourse. The problem of most of the people nowadays is that they rely too much on “instant”

things. They easily indulge on premarital sex because they know that there is a contraceptive that

will keep them away from responsibility. This means that giving of condoms to all public high

school students will allow students to think that they can freely do sexual activities as long as

they use contraception which is only supposed to be applicable to married couples and is not

acceptable by the church.

Giving of free condoms is also not budget wise for our country. This will just add to the

expenses of the government and will just be a burden to taxpayers. According to Secillo (2016),

DOH campaign of giving condoms is nothing but a waste of the taxpayers’ money. There is a

large number of high school students in our country and there are no assurance that this program

will give solution to HIV/AIDS.

This program can be also considered improper. It appears as a not well thought of plan

because instead of reducing or preventing the activity of premarital sex, the government is

planning to implement a program that will promote safe sex. They are not hindering students

from doing those activities but are rather tolerating them. A school is a venue for learning. It

should not be made as a place of opportunity for students to disregard discipline and ignore

moral laws.

The rise of HIV or AIDS cases is an alarming issue. It should never be taken for granted.

But this doesn’t mean that we should sacrifice our principles and religious beliefs just to solve

this problem. Instead of giving free condoms, the government should instead widely promote

HIV/AIDS awareness to students and give funds to the activities which could divert the attention

of students from sexual activities. They should instead give focus in conducting recreational

activities to schools like promoting sports and games which can help develop camaraderie and

enjoyment to students. Though, the best way to resolve this is to start from ourselves. If all of us

living in this country would be responsible and disciplined enough to know our obligations and

limitations as person and as a citizen of this country, growing number of cases of HIV/AIDS

would be prevented. No matter what program the government would implement, those would be

all useless if we won’t help ourselves. We can also help other people by informing them or
letting them be aware of the things and activities that should be avoided which would cause and

spread HIV or AIDS. We should also avoid criticizing those people who are HIV positive

because some of them may have obtain that disease because of the lack knowledge, counsel and

guidance from the people around.

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