MANILA, Philippines—Saying true love is more than bodily pleasures and fleeting sensations, pro-life volunteers are spreading out in Metro Manila to remind the public not to give in to lust on Thursday, Valentine’s Day.
Pro-Life Philippines and Filipinos for Life (F4L) have announced that their members will hand out candy bags to pedestrians at various points in Metro Manila with a reminder that “love is about sacrifice of one’s self for the other, and not about giving in to one’s urges.”
“The giving of the candies (with a reminder from the scriptures to stay pure) is our response to the growing trend of people giving away condoms during Valentine’s, which teaches the wrong idea about what true love is,” F4L president Anthony James Perez said in a statement on Wednesday.
He said the bags of candies would carry a note reminding everyone of Christian purity as taught by St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 6:20: “You were bought with the blood of Christ so honor God with your body.”
Pro-Life Philippines and F4L will distribute candy bags at the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 1 stations at UN Avenue and Pedro Gil in Manila, the Metro Rail Transit stations in North Edsa and Cubao, LRT Line 2 station in Santolan, Quiapo Church, Sta. Cruz Church and Intramuros.
Perez said their campaign was a radical departure from the much-criticized Valentine’s Day condom distribution campaigns near motels and flower shops organized yearly by pro-RH (reproductive health law) groups.
The distribution of condoms promotes lack of discipline and even marital infidelity, according to Perez.
“Free condoms during Valentine’s Day also send the wrong message to the youth—that they can have sex without consequences,” Perez said.
“The message should be this: True love waits,” he added.
F4L and the group Doctors for Life will also file jointly the eighth petition against the reproductive health law on Thursday.
“We are filing this petition on Valentine’s Day to register our position that the law destroys the openness to life that characterizes true love between husband and wife,” said doctor Rey Echavez of Doctors for Life.
“The RH law is unconstitutional because it will weaken the family as an institution by promoting artificial contraception and its false promise of a better life,” he added.
Echavez also said doctors would not be able to exercise conscientious objection under the RH law.
“In its essence, RH is a false choice. It will coerce doctors and it conditions the minds of couples that taxpayer-funded artificial contraception is the only acceptable means to the government and its pro-RH allies,” he added.