Social Institutions are the establishments in the society that makes the society function.

These
social institutions are the ones that shaped our society to what it is today. In any wide society, five major
institutions are always present. These are the family, politics, non-state institutions, religion and
economics. As seen from the documentary, the three most major social institutions that affect the
Philippine society are Family, Religion and Politics. The BBC’s documentary entitled “Sex and Religion in
Manila” is about the moves to introduce a reproductive health bill to provide free contraception in a
devoutly catholic country which is the Philippines. The Church, fearing a breakdown in family values, is
resisting the move, and blames the widespread poverty on bad government rather than population
growth.

In dealing with overpopulation as discussed in the documentary, the most concerned institution
is the Family. The institution of family is the most important and is based on the teachings of values,
norms, statuses, and roles. The family is designed to guide sexual activity, socialization, and social
relations within a sexual union. Family and mate selection is a key to solve overpopulation and
widespread poverty. If the family in the abovementioned documentary have planned their family
properly, they might have a much better life than that. If the mother has selected her mate based on
propinquity, meeting each other’s core needs and mutual commitment and goals; it might have been a
different story. I admire April’s (the young lady in the documentary) outlook in life. She doesn’t want to
have the same life that her mom had suffered, so she focused on studying and shun all potential
relationship. With this outlook in life of April and if she selects her mate and plans her own family
properly, surely she’ll have a much better life in the future compared to her family’s current situation.

The documentary shows the power of the Catholic Church in the Philippine society. Although
there is the separation of Church and State, the Roman Catholic Church still occupies a central position
in Philippine politics by virtue of its role in helping to overthrow the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos in
1986, to dismissing Erap Estrada from office and its subsequent role as a moral guardian. In this society
rife with poverty and political corruption, the Church remains the most trusted and arguably most
pervasive social institution, running not only churches but also schools, hospitals, media outlets and
various other social services. Thus, it’s also not surprising if the church could reprieve the
implementation of the RH Law. The Church has constructed its teaching against contraception as a
threatened religious norm. The Catholic Church believes that human life starts at fertilization that’s why
they are against artificial contraception. The different religious organizations actually used all its power
to stop the bill. It pulled out all the stops: pastoral letters, delegations to legislature, appeals to powerful
parishioners, social media advocacy, pickets, prayer rallies, big tarpaulins in churches, threats of
excommunication, etc. Religion is really one powerful social institution in the Philippine society; it can
dictate what is morally good or morally wrong.

The role of political institution is also shown in the documentary. Political institutions are
organizations which create, enforce and apply laws. They often mediate conflict, make policy on the
economy and social systems and otherwise provide representation for the populous. Reproductive
Health Law as shown in the documentary is one policy that the political institution of the Philippines has
mandated. The Philippine Congress enacted Republic Act No. 10354 on Responsible Parenthood and
Reproductive Health (RH Law) on December 18, 2012, after decades of what can only be described as
bitter public controversy and political wrangling. Although it was already passed as a law on 2012, it was
not on full implementation until 2017 because was suspended by the Supreme Court through a
temporary restraining order, following objections from religious groups that alleged the law violated the
rights to religion and free speech. For this controversial Law to be passed and be fully implemented, it
needed a resolute political will power that withstood the resistance of other institutions. But if the
government used a coercive type of power, we might not have waited decades for the RH Law to be
passed. The Filipinos were caught between the hard church and the soft state. The documentary also
conveys that large family size is closely associated with poverty incidence, as consistently borne out by
household survey data over time. In short, poor families are heavily burdened when they end up with
more children than they want. With this RH Law, it is expected that it will help reduce the poverty of the
Philippines and improve the economy.

With Manila being the fastest growing city in Asia, the main question coming out of the
documentary was what was the cause of poverty? Is it overpopulation caused by a lack of contraception
and sexual health education? Is it because of the conservativeness of the Catholic Church? Or is it
caused by poor governance from those in position? Which social institution should be the most
accountable? Well, the answers depend. But mostly, we can blame it to those people in position.
Philippines has long been classifies as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. It is naive for
anyone to simply blame the Catholic Church of using religious doctrine or to blame married couples for
having too many kids. Moreover, the belief in overpopulation as the cause of poverty encourages a
sense of helplessness because there is no obvious solution. Even if we accept that the Philippines is
overpopulated, what are we going to do with all the people who are already here? We need to think of
people as a source of strength and not as a problem. The sensible strategy would be the government to
invest in people to make then as productive as possible in order to promote economic development and
reduce poverty.

With the impending population explosion in the Philippines, the main question emerging from
the documentary was what was the cause of poverty? Is it overpopulation caused by a lack of
contraception and sexual health education? Is it because of the Religious beliefs? Or is it
caused by poor governance from those in charge? The BBC’s documentary entitled “Sex and
Religion in Manila” is about the moves to introduce a reproductive health bill to provide free
contraception in a devoutly catholic country which is the Philippines. The Church, fearing a breakdown
in family values, is resisting the move, and blames the widespread poverty on bad government rather
than population growth.

One of the major issues of the country is the great threat of population explosion. The church is
said to be blamed for this distress because of its constructed teachings against contraception. Quiapo
Church in Manila is one of the biggest symbols of the spirituality and religiosity of the Filipinos.
Countless Filipino people go to church to attend and hear masses and pray in beliefs that their
faithfulness will lead to a better life. This shows how powerful and influential the religious institution in
the Philippine Society. Religion is a social institution that answers questions and explains the seemingly
inexplicable. Religion provides explanations for why things happen and demystifies the ideas of birth
and death. The Church is involved in every phase and aspects of life of a person. A shown in the
documentary, Prior to marriage, seminars are given by pastoral councilors promoting spiritual
and matrimonial wellbeing as well as the finer details of the natural method of
reproduction. The Church has constructed its teaching against contraception as a threatened religious
norm. The Catholic Church believes that human life starts at fertilization that’s why they are against
artificial contraception and treats abortion as a grave sin.