Sex, relationship education eyed to prevent teen pregnancies, HIV

Can I have sex on my first date?

This was one of the questions that young kids in school asked nowadays, Maribel Dionisio, parenting and relationship consultant, said in a recent hearing of the Senate committee on education chaired by Paolo Benigno Aquino IV on the status of the implementation of Reproductive Health education in schools.

READ: Senator Aquino seeks probe on status of RH education in schools

Dionisio told the committee that she has been getting a request from private schools to talk about teen pregnancies to students as young as Grade 4.

And the focus of discussion, she said, was not only on sex but also on relationships.

She said they told students that while they are studying, they can make friends and have a boyfriend or girlfriend at age 19.

“Because many parents say: Just study, no friends, which is not appropriate because they are teenagers,” Dionisio said.

“Then we make their life plan. What is your goal? What do you want to be?”

She said they explained to young students that while they can make friends or relationship, they should not engage in sex as this would be “in conflict” with achieving their goals.

They also warned them of the possibility of acquiring sexually transmitted disease if they would not be careful.

“We should have relationship education and sex is part of it so that they will see the value of the sex in the context of the relationship because when I tell them how often is lovemaking when you’re married, for good marriages, how often is lovemaking?  They think it’s everyday, I said ‘no'”

Dionisio said some thought lovemaking could last an hour or two but she told them the partners would die if sex would take that long.

For good marriages, she said, lovemaking should be done thrice a week.

“That’s why we have to do well in school and get the best man because sex is not going to dominate your life,” she said.

During the same hearing, Commissioner Percival Cendaña of the National Youth Commission reiterated that the Philippines is the “gold medalist” when it comes to teen pregnancies in Southeast Asia.

“We have the highest of increase in the whole region,” he said.

Cendaña said that based on the Philippine Statistics Authority, 600 babies or 24 to 25 babies are born every hour to teenage mothers.

“It would be about 600 young girls—19 years old and below—who would give birth everyday in the Philippines. 600 po if you divide the total number of deliveries every year of young people, 19 years old and below, ang average po nyan around 600 so that’s around 24-25 every hour so that’s how grave the situation is,” he said.

“This is one gold medal that we don’t want in the country,” the official added.

To address the problem, Cendaña said one suggestion was that Filipino youth should have basic knowledge of proper and consistent use of condom in Grade 12.

The number of youths, who also test positive for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) everyday, has also been rising.

“I think we’re now silver medalist in Asia,” Cendaña said.

Another resource person, Professor Clarissa David, said that based on their research and interview, the youths know that they don’t want to get pregnant but they just don’t know how.

“So it’s a question of how,” David said.

“If the goal is to really reduce teenage pregnancies, then we really have to teach them how to prevent pregnancies and HIV.”

“Ang kadalasang nakikita sa field, pagkatapos, Ma’am, ng sex ay iinom ka ng cortal tapos tatalon ka three times tapos hindi ka mabubuntis (What we observed in the field, Ma’am, is after sex, the girl will drink cortal and jump for three times to avoid pregnancy). The people believe these things,” she added. RAM/rga