MANILA, Philippines?A Quezon City court yesterday dismissed a civil case against the education department?s sex education program after the petitioning group itself moved to withdraw the complaint.

The state posed no objection to the withdrawal and Judge Rosanna Fe Romero-Maglaya granted the motion, saying both parties had shown a lack of interest in pursuing the case.

The court also dismissed the civil complaint against former education secretary Mona Valisno and undersecretary Ramon Bacani ?without prejudice,? which means it can be filed again in the future.

The petitioners, a group of about 30 ?concerned parents? led by Jo Imbong, a former lawyer of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, filed the case last month asking the court to stop Valisno and Bacani from enforcing the program.

Pilot-testing

They claimed that the Department of Education?s Memorandum 261 mandating the pilot-testing of sex education in select schools tended to violate the petitioners? rights to mold their children?s moral values.

They said the teaching of sex education should be limited to the family only and that sex education in schools violated the parents? constitutional rights.

The Department of Education (DepEd) opposed the petition, saying the project was not immoral and that the petitioning parents failed to show that their children were studying in the schools where the project was being pilot-tested.

Meanwhile, a lawyer who filed a motion to intervene in the case, deplored the fact that Education Secretary Armin Luistro had met with the petitioners before they decided to ask the court to dismiss their own case so as not to ?preempt Secretary Luistro?s action on the
program.?

Luistro should not have met on the issue with the petitioners, which included Catholic bishops, because of the principle of separation of Church and State, said Clara Rita Padilla, executive director of Engender Rights, a group that is in favor of the teaching of sex education in schools.

Church-State separation

?Otherwise, he could be swayed one way, contrary to the separation of Church and State and the constitutional provision on the non-establishment of a particular religion,? Padilla said.

Luistro has admitted to having met with the bishops during which he agreed to create a group to review the sex education program as part of a two-year general review of the basic education curriculum.

Padilla said the DepEd should continue with the teaching of sex education, called the Adolescent Reproductive Health Program, because Filipino adolescents have to be taught about ?safe sex and the perils of risky sexual behavior?.

Teenage pregnancy

She cited the results of the 2008 National Demographic Survey, released last January, that showed that there are 47 births for every 1,000 women aged 15 to 19 years old.

?This shows that our youth are not only sexually active, they are already giving birth. Giving birth is dangerous when you are below 19. The maternal mortality rates are high for those below 19,? Padilla said.

She said that many of the new HIV infections are also from the 15 to 24 age group and ?almost all of these cases were through sexual transmission.?

?It?s not enough that you teach them in biology class. They need to know more about the problems they are going to have with unsafe sex and early pregnancy,? Padilla said.

She also said that the DepED should also be teaching about sexual orientation because of the high suicide rates among homosexual youth because of the ?stigma society attaches to them.?