• Director(s):

    GEORGES (NATHALIE)

  • Producer(s):

    ARTE GEIE

  • Territories:

    Worldwide.

  • Production year:

    2012

  • Language(s):

    German, French

  • Rights:

    NON-THEATRICAL, TV, VOD, DVD, INTERNET

After 14 years of stormy debate and political and religious controversy, a law on family planning has just been passed in the Philippines. The text makes provisions for sex education lessons at school, free distribution of the pill and condoms, and an increase in access to family planning.

In a country in which abortion and divorce are illegal, and in which the Church has banned all artificial contraceptives, debate has raged. For certain opponents to the law, the deadly floods of last August and December's Typhoon Bopha are "divine punishments".

For others, the law is an international conspiracy, led by the major pharmaceutical companies. Those in favour of the law, led by the president, consider it helps fight the demographic explosion, the rise in early pregnancies and clandestine abortion.

Arte Reportage went to Manila, a few days before the bill was passed. The bill is an affront for the Church, and a revolution in Asia's only Catholic bastion.