A PROPOSED law mandating sex education in all Philippine schools has triggered outrage in the predominantly Christian nation, with critics claiming this will weaken religious values and undermine parental authority on matters of morality.
The Prevention of Adolescent Pregnancy Act or Senate Bill 1979 aims to make sex education mandatory in public and private schools to, among others, address the rising rate of adolescent pregnancies in the country. But a wave of objection from conservative and religious groups has put paid to hopes for a smooth passage for the Bill.
The pending Bill will require all schools to implement comprehensive sex education for students aged 10 to 19, from upper primary through secondary levels.
While sex education has been part of the Philippine public school curriculum since 2018, this is not the case for private schools, many of which are run by the Catholic Church. Currently, about 10% of students in the country attend private schools.
Up until now, the Bill has received scant attention from the public since it was filed in 2023; senators gave it the go-ahead at the committee level in July 2023 and debates among lawmakers have been ongoing since mid-2024, pending Senate approval of the Bill.
But controversy erupted in January this year, after the National Coalition for the Family and the Constitution (NCFC), a collation of church groups, posted a video on Jan 10 sounding the alarm against the implementing guidelines of the Philippines’ comprehensive sexuality education programme.
“It will hypersexualise children at a very early age,” said NCFC convenor and former Philippine Supreme Court chief justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, who appeared in the video. “They’re going to talk about it. Supervised by who? Only by the teacher, a stranger”.
The overwhelming public uproar following the video’s release led to seven senators out of the 18 who signed the committee report on the Bill in 2023 withdrawing their support. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said on Jan 21 that he would veto the proposed law if the “abhorrent” elements were not amended.
It is not uncommon for conservative groups in the Philippines to lobby actively against proposed policies they deem as opposed to their religious beliefs.
The Philippines is the most populous Christian-majority country in Asia. Divorce and abortion remain illegal in the country. — The Straits Times/ANN