January 24, 2025
MANILA – Some harrowing data: According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), around 13 percent of adolescent girls below 18 gave birth in 2023, across the globe. In the Philippines, the Department of Health and Philippine Statistics Authority recorded pre-adolescent pregnancies numbering to more than 2,000 in 2020. The number rose to 2,299 in 2022.
One of the solutions being looked at is implementing a law that would put comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) in place. After all, knowledge is power, and the best way to protect our youth from not just early pregnancies but also sexually transmitted diseases and sexuality and gender-based violence is to equip them with information.
In 2023, the House of Representatives approved their version of the bill (House Bill No. 8910). Meanwhile, the Senate version of the bill, Senate Bill 1979 (SB 1979), is still pending approval. However, President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. already claimed he would automatically veto the bill in its current form, calling it “abhorrent.” In an ambush interview by Inquirer, he said, “This is a travesty of what sex education should be to children.”
Though he says he supports teaching children about their anatomy and reproductive systems, the consequences of early pregnancy, and the prevalence of diseases like HIV, “the woke absurdities they’ve included (in SB 1979) are abhorrent to me,” he says.
He cites an alleged guide by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (Unesco) as one that promotes education on self-exploration, bodily sensations, and the like to children as young as four and six years old.
However, the actual technical working guide published by Unesco details age-appropriate curricula for various age groups (ages 5 to 8, 9 to 12, and 15 to 18+). Contrary to Marcos’ claims (“You will teach four-year-olds how to masturbate; that every child has the right to try different sexualities,” Inquirer quotes), the Unesco technical working guide covers topics on masturbation, self-exploration, and sexuality for youth already aged nine and above, with the topics being solely knowledge-based (not involving “demonstration” or as the guide categorizes it, as “skill” based lessons).
What the guide does suggest with regard to action or skill-based topics revolves mainly around communication: communicating discomfort, disapproval/non-consent, seeking help from trusted adults, and the like.
In fact, Unesco even emphasizes in curricula across age groups that abstaining from sexual intercourse is the most effective in preventing pregnancies. Definitely in line with Filipino morality.
Senator Risa Hontiveros, one of the main authors of SB 1979, expressed her dismay at the response to the bill. “Nakakagulat at nakakagalit ang mga kasinungalingan na kumakalat sa social media laban sa panukalang batas na ito,” she said. “We all want what’s best for our children. But outright lies, misinformation, disinformation, and promoting fear can lead to more harmful decisions about our teen’s lives. Nililito lang nila tayo.”
The Senate bill also does not make any mention of provisions “seeking to encourage masturbation to children aged 0 to 4 or teach bodily pleasure to children aged 6 to 9,” contrary to what detractors claim.
“Absolutely none of those concepts exist in our bill. Those lines in their supposed rebuttal are complete and total fabrication,” Hontiveros says.
What’s actually in SB 1979?
Detractors of the bill claim that signing this into law would breach parents’ rights to decide on how to educate their children.
However, the bill itself acknowledges that the state must “recognize and promote the rights, duties, and responsibilities of parents, teachers, and other persons legally responsible for the growth of adolescents to provide, in a manner consistent with the evolving capacities of the adolescent, appropriate direction and guidance in sexual and reproductive matters.” In short, in no way does it intend to disregard the parents’ role in sex education for their children.
In fact, a section of the bill is also dedicated to CSE for parents and guardians with adolescent children. The bill states: “A community-based program for education and awareness of parents and guardians about adolescent sexuality and bodily autonomy shall be developed and implemented with the main objective of capacitating them to effectively guide, counsel, and provide support to their adolescent children in concerns and decisions related to their sexual and reproductive health.”
In short, the bill aims to support and empower parents as they guide their children, too.
The bill aims to cover and protect the rights of adolescents especially with regard to reproductive health, their right to education, freedom of expression, and the right to participate “in decision-making… and to choose and make responsible decisions for themselves.” The bill aims to do this by providing “full and comprehensive information to adolescents that can help them prevent early and unintended pregnancies and their life-long consequences.”
This also means having “complete, medically accurate, relevant, age and development-appropriate and culturally sensitive information and skills,” the goal of which is to develop and empower adolescents to make informed decisions.
And while the Unesco working guide aims to target children as young as five years old, SB 1979 specifies its coverage for adolescents, referring to “the population aged 10 to 19 years.” (So no, there is no plan to teach masturbation to four-year-olds.) It stresses “age and development-appropriate comprehensive sexuality education” that is standardized and implemented in all basic education institutions.
The bill also emphasizes that “sexuality” as referred to in the bill means not just matters of the reproductive system and sexual behavior, but also of “gender identity, values or beliefs, emotions, relationships… of young people as social beings.”
There is also no intent in the bill to subvert social, cultural, or family values. It makes provisions for the acceptability of the services that should be provided, stating: “All health facilities, goods, and services should respect cultural values, be gender-sensitive, be respectful of medical ethics, and be acceptable to both adolescents and the communities in which they live; provided that in all cases the best interest of the child shall prevail.”
Other noteworthy provisions in the bill include the use of media to promote CSE, the review of broadcast guidelines to ensure that programs and films do not promote unsafe sexual activities among adolescents, protective services for cases of sexual violence, as well as care and management for first-time parents.