English 3 Position Paper

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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Final Requirement

Topic: HIV/AIDS prevention

growing number of HIV cases.

Government, morality of the people will be questioned

questioning the significance of the program.

acceptable by the church.

will give solution to HIV/AIDS.

guidance from the people around.

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