Rody: Taking birth control pills not a sin

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Contrary to what the priests are saying, taking pills is not a sin, President Duterte on Friday told a group of informal settlers whom he treated to a dinner at a parking lot across his favorite hangout here.

“Do not listen to priests. Taking pills is not a sin. Kalokohan yan (That’s nonsense),” he told the more than 200 informal settlers assembled outside the After Dark Piano Bar.

The Catholic Church is against the Reproductive Health Law, which allows birth control methods like the pill as means to help poor families determine the number and spacing of children they want to have.

He reiterated his position on the need for an unhampered implementation of the RH Law.

“Just follow what the government is telling you because it can help you. As your former mayor and now your president, I am not foolish to put you in harm’s way. It’s my obligation to lead Filipinos to the right path, to what is good,” he said in Filipino.

“What I’m telling you is for your own good, because if you have seven, eight children you can’t really send them to school,” he pointed out.

He also warned those with three or more children of arrest. He said – apparently in jest – he would have the genitals of mothers with many children stitched and their husbands’ penises cut off to keep them from making more babies.

He asked the informal settlers to go to the city health office and ask for birth control pills so they could limit the number of their children.

The President used to offer P5,000 cash incentive to women and men who undergo ligation and vasectomy, respectively.

With a burgeoning population, Duterte lamented the government now has to build more schools.

“Now if you continue to have babies, the government will run out of budget for that,” he said.