MANILA, Philippines?Unless stopped by the courts, the Department of Education (DepEd) intends to proceed with the pilot-testing of sex education in public schools this school year, Education Secretary Mona Valisno said Monday.

Valisno said the program was still in the ?consultation stage? and that the DepEd had asked thrice for a dialogue with the Catholic Bishops? Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) but the bishops have yet to respond.

?Yes, we will pursue it as long as we have consultations,? Valisno said in an interview.

She said the DepEd would only stop the program if the courts decided to issue a temporary restraining order against the teaching of sex education in public schools.

The Catholic political party Ang Kapatiran Party (AKP) Monday filed a class suit in the Quezon City Regional Trial Court to stop the DepEd plan to teach sex education because it supposedly violated the rights of parents to nurture the moral character of their children.

?I have yet to receive a copy of their complaint but we will follow whatever the decision of the court is. We will obey,? Valisno said.

?This is still in the consultation stage. It has not been implemented. We are not there yet,? she added.

Teen pregnancies

Valisno said the DepEd needed to teach sex education because of the ?alarming? rate of pregnancies among teenagers.

?These are 15, 16 and 17-year-olds. They?re still in high school so they are disadvantaged. They can?t afford to get pregnant. Sometimes, they even drop out of school,? she said.

?We need to inform young girls about the need to prevent teenage pregnancies and for them to maintain proper hygiene,? Valisno added.

The DepEd had been teaching sex education but it was integrated in subjects like Biology. This time, however, the Catholic Church was protesting a project that was initiated by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to teach sex education initially in 80 elementary schools and 79 high schools around the country.

Nothing to worry about

Education officials said the bishops had nothing to worry about because the DepEd was open to deleting portions of the teaching modules that the Church would find offensive.

The project would be pilot-tested this school year in Grades 5 and 6 classes and in high schools in Olongapo City, Ifugao, Mountain Province, Masbate, Bohol, Eastern Samar, Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi and Sultan Kudarat.

For Grade 5, sex education would be included in the Science and Health subject that would have lessons on the reproductive system.

For Grade 6, it would be integrated in Edukasyong Pantahanan at Pangkabuhayan and it would include lessons on the ?proper behavior between peers of different gender,? personal hygiene, and the problems caused by unwanted pregnancy.

Valisno explained that the program was initiated in 2005 and that DepEd was on the ?second batch? of pilot-testing to decide if some items in the teaching modules should be deleted before it is implemented throughout the public school system. She also clarified that the UNFPA was no longer funding the project.

?We will continue with the consultations and we hope to finish these as soon as possible,? she said.

Petition

Parents, led by AKP lawyer Jo Imbong, Monday filed with the Quezon City RTC a 28-page petition to stop the DepEd from teaching sex education in schools.

The petitioners said that the DepEd?s Memorandum No. 261 on sex education was unconstitutional since it ?[violates] substantive due process and [violates] the primary right of parents to the development of the moral character of their children.?

They further claimed that the DepEd memo also violated the families? right to participate in the planning and implementation of policies affecting them and the spouses? right to find a family planning method according to their religious beliefs.

The petitioners stressed that there was no need to train children as young as 9 years old on reducing fertility, preventing sexually transmitted illnesses and the reproductive health components like family planning services, condoms and contraceptive pills.

?Are they, especially the grade schoolers, already generally indulging in sex and are promiscuous enough as to warrant HIV/AIDS protection or the use of condoms, IUDs and contraceptive pills? Our kids are not that sex-liberated. Essentially, they still have conservative sex values... DepEd Memo 261 is unreasonable and arbitrary unless DepEd is candid enough to admit that its real agenda is to transform the sex behavior of our kids towards being sex-obsessed,? the petitioners said.

Sex ed not the answer

?Sex education in schools is not the answer to our population problem and poverty,? AKP head Eric Manalang said Monday.

?It promotes promiscuity among children... it does not promote the proper values that we want our children to receive in schools and we believe sex education should strictly remain a family affair,? he said.

Manalang said the chances of the legal bid succeeding were high with the CBCP, as well as various parent groups, supporting the fight.

?Issues that are not for children should not be taught in schools,? the bishops? conference had said in a statement. With reports from Julie M. Aurelio and Agence France-Presse