THE Senate Committee on Basic Education on Tuesday said it will conduct an inquiry into the Department of Education’s (DepEd) implementation of sexual education amid concerns from conservative quarters.
This comes after President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. linked a bill seeking to address teenage pregnancy through comprehensive sexual education (CSE) to “woke” mentality.
“Amid debates on implementing sex education in schools, where the President has emphasized the important role of parents — a stance I completely agree with — the Senate Committee on Basic Education will conduct an inquiry on the Department of Education’s implementation of CSE,” Senator Sherwin T. Gatchalian, who chairs the Committee on Basic Education, said in a statement.
DepEd’s sex education curriculum should be consistent “with the mandate of the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health (RPRH) Act of 2012 or Republic Act No. 10354,” he said.
With the passage of the Reproductive Health Act of 2012, sex education has been incorporated into the curriculum of public-school students aged 10-19.
The President on Monday said he was “appalled” by some elements in Senate Bill 1979, the proposed Prevention of Adolescent Pregnancy Act, blaming “woke mentality” that he said proponents were “trying to bring into our system.”
His statement came after a religious group named Project Dalisay, which is led by former Chief Justice Maria Lourdes P.A. Sereno, linked the bill’s sex education provision to a technical guidance by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and World Health Organization for sex education, which tackles masturbation.
“The two international documents are quite candid about its normalization,” the group of the ousted chief justice said in a statement earlier this month.
“It is worth noting that Section 14 of the RPRH Law already calls for age- and development-appropriate reproductive health education for adolescents,” Mr. Gatchalian said.
He said the Philippines needs to do more in reducing teenage pregnancies and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections, but “in a way that recognizes the important role of parents and parent-substitutes in the formulation and implementation of policies that will have a lasting impact on the well-being of our children.”
“The Parent Effectiveness Service Program Act (Republic Act No. 11908) provides for these mechanisms, and I call for their effective implementation to address challenges facing our youth,” he added.
Senator Ana Theresia “Risa” N. Hontiveros-Baraquel, among the principal authors, has called Project Dalisay’s claims fake news, reiterating that nowhere in the bill are the words masturbation and 14-year-olds mentioned.
In response to Mr. Marcos’ remarks, she said on Monday that the bill does not encourage kids to “try different sexualities.”
“Child sex education contains the very same things you support: teaching kids — anatomy and the consequences of early pregnancy,” she said in a video statement.
Also on Tuesday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Mr. Marcos had echoed disinformation about the proposed Senate bill, calling his remarks “unfortunate.”
“The president is mistaken,” HRW Senior Researcher Carlos H. Conde told reporters in a WhatsApp message. “The 25-page Senate Bill 1979 does not contain any provision about masturbation or any that seeks to encourage early sexual activity among children and adolescents.”
The bill, HRW noted, is a “long overdue” measure designed to equip young people with the knowledge and skills to make informed decisions about their health and well-being.
Mr. Conde added the proposed law could protect children from unwanted teen pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases and sexual abuse.
“This disinformation against CSE will harm children. We hope President Marcos will correct his mistaken statement and continue his support for the program,” he added.
In a separate statement, Senator Maria Imelda Josefa “Imee” R. Marcos said Senate Bill 1979, which is “significantly different” from the version she had proposed, does not intend to deprive parents of their primordial authority and guidance.
Instead, the DepEd, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Health (DoH), and the entire community are enjoined to assist parents with “medically accurate, culturally sensitive, nondiscriminatory” information, she said.
Ms. Marcos said teenage pregnancy in the Philippines has been cited by the World Bank “as not only a moral problem but an economic loss for these girls’ education and future job prospects.”
She said age- and culturally-appropriate sex education in schools, together with parental guidance, is “ever more important today” amid rising cases of teenage pregnancy, false sex data, and “the growing incidence of HIV and STDs (sexually transmitted diseases).”
The DoH last month said HIV cases in the Philippines may rise to 215,400 by the end of 2024, citing 4,595 confirmed cases from July to September 2024 alone. Of the confirmed cases from July to September 2024, 1,301 or 28% had an advanced HIV infection at the time of diagnosis, according to the agency’s data.
The Senate bill pushes a compulsory comprehensive sex education in schools that is “medically accurate, culturally sensitive, rights-based and inclusive and nondiscriminatory.”
The sex education curriculum will tackle “human sexuality, informed consent, adolescent reproductive health, effective contraceptive use, disease prevention, HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections, gender sensitivity, gender equality and equity, teen dating, gender-based violence, sexual abuse and exploitation, peer pressure, women’s and children’s rights and issues like pornography,” according to the bill.
Over a year has passed and the bill has yet to be scheduled for plenary debates, Ms. Hontiveros’s office told BusinessWorld.
The Commission on Population and Development last week flagged rising teen pregnancies, particularly those under 15 years old, as it urged the Senate to pass the teenage pregnancy bill.
Pregnancies among minors aged 10 to 14 are at an alarming state “that needs a more responsive policy,” it said in a statement.
Repeat pregnancies also remain an issue, with 38 young girls under 15 having experienced it in 2023, it said. Seventeen women have given birth to five or more babies before they turned 20, it added.
MISGUIDED CONCEPTIONThe Kabataan Party-list on Tuesday cited “misguided contentions” to the teenage pregnancy bill, which was already passed at the House of Representatives on the third and final reading.
“Some claim that the Comprehensive Adolescent Sexuality Education is an entirely different topic from adolescent pregnancy prevention policy. In truth, it is part and parcel of the policy. Without proper education, any prevention mechanism will not work, since information is key to prevention,” Representative Raoul Danniel A. Manuel said in a statement.
“In the face of thousands of young women enduring the crisis of adolescent pregnancy, families and non-state entities are actually expected to contribute to educating young Filipinos about this matter and be partners in other aspects of the comprehensive policy to prevent adolescent pregnancies,” he added.
He said thousands of young women have been thrust into the physical and emotional struggles of early motherhood.
“For their sake, meaningful reforms must be made.”
Meanwhile, Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus B. Rodriguez said the proposal, as approved by the House of Representatives, should be recalled as it could be deemed unconstitutional.
In a statement, Mr. Rodriguez said that House Bill No. 8910, approved in 2023, violated the 1987 Philippine Constitution by tackling a “different and separate subject matter” in addressing adolescent pregnancy.
The Constitution states that bills passed by Congress should tackle “only one subject matter.”
“Many provisions of the bill aim to institutionalize Comprehensive Adolescent Sexuality Education (CASE), which is a different and separate subject matter from adolescent pregnancy. This is violative of Article IV, Section 26, Paragraph (1) of the Constitution,” he said. — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza, Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio, and Chloe Mari A. Hufana
