MANILA, Philippines — “We cannot afford to have children having children.”
Sen. Risa Hontiveros made this firm remark on Wednesday as she sponsored at the Senate plenary session Senate Bill No. 1979 under Committee Report No. 41, or the proposed Prevention of Adolescent Pregnancy Act, which seeks to provide a national policy in preventing adolescent pregnancies and institutionalize social protection for teen parents.
“It is our duty as legislators and as parents to provide the next generation of Filipinos the knowledge they need to empower them to make informed decisions as they grow into adulthood. By doing so, we will be allowing more young Filipinos to choose the timing and the manner of how they enter parenthood, if or when they choose to do so,” Hontiveros said.
She lamented the thousands of adolescent Filipinos who have begun childbearing and are about to plunge into the real world of parenthood.
Hontiveros also took note that while there had been a drop in teenage pregnancies among Filipino girls aged 15 to 19, a new worrying trend has risen: pregnancies among the 10- to 14-year-old age group.
READ: PopCom raises alarm over children as young as 10 getting pregnant
“Some of them are elementary school children – elementary school children – who will now be carrying a child while still just in the cusp of their own childhoods. These are thousands of students whose education will be disrupted at the very least and ended at the worst,” she said.
But the minority senator also pointed out that for some students, pregnancies will not only disrupt their schooling but “spell the abrupt end of their education.”
Citing the National Economic and Development Authority, Hontiveros further said that teenagers who get pregnant lose as much as P42 billion in lifetime income.
READ: Teenage pregnancies: P35B annual PH loss, other costs
“These macro level numbers are easy to quantify, but for our young parents, their losses may be incalculable in terms of lost opportunities or missed chances,” she added.
The proposed measure pushes for the creation of an evidence-based National Program on the Prevention of Adolescent Pregnancy, which will be worked on by a council with members representing relevant national agencies and non-government and civil society organizations, especially those that are rooted in advocacies for women, children, and the youth.
Among those that the bill seeks to do are:
- Organize and mobilize regional and local integrated information and service delivery network for adolescent health and development
- Create and promote of age and development-appropriate comprehensive sexuality education in schools, communities and other youth institutions
- Create and promote comprehensive sexuality education for out-of-school adolescents and those with special concerns
- Create and promote comprehensive sexuality education for parents and guardians with adolescent children
- Train of teachers, guidance counselors and school supervisors on comprehensive sexuality education
- Promote comprehensive sexuality education using the quad media
- Enjoin participation of private sector in promotion of comprehensive sexuality education
- Provide access to sexual and reproductive health information and services
- Provide a comprehensive social protection service for adolescent mothers and/or parents
- Give protective services in cases of humanitarian, conflict, pandemics or national emergency situations
- Provide access to care and management for first-time parents
- Encourage male involvement and shared parenthood
- Provide assistance for foster care or adoption option
- Designate February of every year as the month for raising public awareness on preventing adolescent pregnancy and conduct of nationwide communication campaign
- Improve management of residential care facilities for disadvantaged women
- Integrate local programs for the prevention of adolescent pregnancy in the Sangguniang Kabataan initiatives and the Local Council for the Protection of Children
- Create national information system on the prevention of adolescent pregnancy
The sexual and reproductive health services, according to Hontiveros, will only be for teens above 15 years old–the recommended age of the United Nations, Department of Health and non-government organizations.
“Kapag mas bata sa 15, kailangan pa din ang pahintulot ng magulang or responsible adults designated by the State. In all cases, may mandatory counselling by accredited social workers,” she added.
(If they’re younger than 15, they will need the permission of their parents or the responsible adults designated by the State. In all cases, there is mandatory counseling by accredited social workers.)
Aside from giving social protection to young parents, Hontiveros said the proposed measure also “seeks to strengthen the referral pathways in cases of sexual violence against adolescents by instituting mandated reportorial requirements when there are observed and identified signs of abuse.”
This is in adherence with the crucial law that raised the age of sexual consent in the Philippines from 12 to 16.
READ: Age of sexual consent now 16: Why this ‘hard-fought’ win is crucial in PH
Hontiveros also noted that the chamber’s panel on women, children, family relations and gender equality — which she chairs — welfare and rural development, health and demography, and finance were taken into consideration when it drafted the committee report the need to make it “culturally sensitive.”
The proposed amendments forwarded by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples and the National Commission for Muslim Filipinos were also adopted, she added.
RELATED STORIES
More teen births involve older fathers – PSA
Majority of Filipinos consider teenage pregnancy as women’s most important problem—SWS