Ayala Alabang Village Ordinance Number 1 Series of 2011 condemns use of artificial contraceptives

You'd think the affluence of the residents of tony Ayala Alabang Village (AAV) would count them among the most enlightened amongst us -- hard-working, prosperous, and secular. Conventional thinking has it that as a society prospers the less its people's minds are imprisoned by superstition and dogma. But in a recent ordinance (Ordinance No. 1 Series of 2011) issued by the Barangay (township) of Ayala Alabang, City of Muntinlupa in Metro Manila, the clout of the Catholic Church over the cream of the Philippine elite was demonstrated yet again.

The ordinance which supposedly provides "for the safety and protection of the unborn child" in effect condemns the sale and use of artificial contraceptives such as condoms within this wealthy gated community. It however does not effect an absolute ban on these products.

What is remarkable about the ordinance, however, is a preamble within it which provides the position on the matter of reproductive health taken by the officers of the township. This preamble unabashedly stipulates a moral judgement on the good people of this secular state who engage in sexual activity or choose to raise their offspring outside of marriage (note text below in boldface applied by the author of this article).

[Section] D. The BARANGAY as well (a) endorses the view that contraceptive pills and hormonal contraceptives and the IUD may kill children and injure the health of women who use them; (b) condemns the irresponsible and indiscriminate use of contraceptives as they undermine the solidarity of families by promoting premarital sex, giving rise to more fatherless children, more single mothers, more poverty, and more abortions when the contraceptives fail to prevent conception, and by causing a decline of legitimate marriages, and, (c) denounces the use of condoms as far as they promote and sanction immoral sexual congresses among the unmarried and especially among the young, thereby contradicting the Constitutional injunction that the State “shall promote and protect … the physical, moral, spiritual, intellectual and social well-being” of the youth [...]

The ordinance does not specifically ban all contraceptives but specifies as a "prohibited act" the sale and distribution (for charity or profit) of abortifacients (devices such as IUDs and hormonal contraceptives that may result in termination of a pregnancy). It however requires pharmacists to treat all contraceptive devices and substances as prescription only dispensations. Thus the sale and distribution of contraceptives such as condoms are classified as a "regulated act" under the ordinance.

Ayala Alabang Village is noted for its magnificent Catholic church building -- the edificially-complex St James Parish Church.



Though the land on which this church is constructed was donated to the Catholic Church, it is not readily accessible to the public as Ayala Alabang Village imposes strict entry requirements on non-resident visitors and has minimal public transport within the vast area inside its fortified perimeter.