Sexuality education not solution to teenage pregnancies —House education chair

House basic education and culture panel chairperson Roman Romulo on Monday expressed belief that comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) is not the key to addressing the rising number of very young mothers in the country. 

Despite acknowledging the problem of teenage pregnancies, Romulo, during a House panel hearing, questioned the Department of Education’s (DepEd) implementation of the CSE “under international agreements.”

“Minsan nababasa ko o nakikita ko po sa ating mga…may mga press release…may mga naglalabas na ine-equate nila ang CSE or comprehensive sexuality education para ito ‘yung kasagutan sa teenage pregnancies. Let me be clear, hindi po,” Romulo said. 

(Sometimes I read or see press releases equating CSE or comprehensive sexuality education as the answer to teenage pregnancies. Let me be clear, it’s not.) 

“Lahat tayo [all of us], we want to reduce the number of teenage pregnancies. Wala tayong problema do’n [we have no problem with that]. I think every member, every Filipino recognizes the fact that we want our learners, the young Filipinos to be well-informed, to know exactly about reproductive health. But it is sex, as defined by UNESCO itself, and sexuality is different,” he added. 

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that the number of mothers aged 10 to 14 rose from 2,113 in 2020, to 2,320 in 2021. The number grew to 3,135 in 2022, and further to 3,343 in 2023. 

This was why concerned groups, even government agencies such as the Commission on Population and Development (CPD), have been long pushing for the enactment of Senate Bill 1979 or the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Bill. Several lawmakers, however, have apprehensions regarding the bill. 

Romulo himself earlier backed the DepEd’s plan to review the CSE currently integrated into the basic education curriculum amid the debates regarding the controversial bill. '

Senate Deputy Minority Leader Risa Hontiveros, author of SB 1979, has removed the provision in the proposed measure on CSE "guided by international standards" which critics deemed to be the curriculum set by UNESCO and the World Health Organization. She said a substitute measure would be filed. 

No CSE suspension

Despite the heated discussions about CSE, DepEd Undersecretary Filemon Ray Javier during the same hearing said that there has been no order to suspend the implementation of the CSE under the Kinder to Grade 12 (K-12) curriculum.

He also denied that the agency is applying the standards of UNESCO or implementing the international organization’s approach in the CSE. 

“As of the moment, there is no decision to suspend, but the directive from us is to thoroughly review Department Order 31, and not only the text but to also ensure that its implementation is correct. Meaning, our operations strand and our curriculum strand are currently working to ensure that we are implementing what we should implement,” Javier said. 

He was referring to the DepEd Order No. 31, series of 2018, signed by then Education Secretary Leonor Briones, which indicated the policy guidelines on the CSE implementation in all public and private elementary, junior, and senior high schools nationwide. 

Based on the order, sex was referred to as the “characteristic at birth whether one is born male or female,” while sexuality was defined as the “totality of personhood encompassing the five components namely: sex, sexual orientation, gender and sexual identity, values and attitudes.”

Javier also said that one of the things that the DepEd would look into during the review is renaming CSE to simply “sex education.”

He said this was in line with the directive of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., who earlier expressed reservations about some of the contents of the CSE under the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Bill.

Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante, meanwhile, suggested to DepEd to rescind DO 31, saying that he would go to the Supreme Court to declare the order as “unconstitutional.”

The lawmaker highly opposed the teaching of CSE to children and even argued that DepEd should reject the Western ideology on CSE, citing concerns about moral values and cultural background. 

“We didn't have [CSE] during my time, but we were not guilty of any teenage pregnancy. Why now? Why do we have to follow the western ideology? Why should we?” Abante asked. 

“Bakit kinakailangan nating sundin ang western ideology tungkol dito [why should we follow the western ideology regarding this]? Why are we not making important Filipino culture and Filipino tradition and our own religiosity? If you’re going to study, ‘yung mga [the] members ng UNESCO, most of them are actually atheists. They do not believe in God just like we do,” he added.

For her part, ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro said that DepEd’s CSE should be reconciled with Republic Act No. 10354 or the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Law of 2012 (RH Law), which provides the policy for age and development-appropriate reproductive health education.

Section 14 of the RH Law provides that the State shall provide age and development-appropriate reproductive health education to adolescents which shall be taught by adequately trained teachers in informal and non-formal educational systems and integrated in relevant subjects. 

DepEd was also tasked under the law to formulate a curriculum that shall be used by public schools and may be adopted by private schools.

The House Committee on Basic Education and Culture has invited DepEd to provide information about its CSE, specifically on the program's legal basis, status of implementation, core topic per grade level in the K to 12 curriculum, and other relevant information.—LDF, GMA Integrated News