Reproductive Health and Sexuality Education in the Philippines

Hey there RANTers!

I am now here at the very first National Consultative Workshop on Reproductive Health and Sexuality Education in the Philippines and as far as the program goes, my brain is already S-A-T-U-R-A-T-E-D. If only I've  known that it would be like this, I wouldn't wait for AYNLA President Alvin Cloyd Dakis to ask me if I could a representative of our organization. I would D-E-F-E-N-I-T-E-L-Y love to be here.


As you would all know, the controversial House Bill 4244 (also known as the RH Bill) has now been passed as a law and is now known as Republic Act 10354 or the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Law. Even if the controversial law has been passed, it needs to undergo certain processes before it is implemented. And now it is on it's SECOND PHASE which is PUBLIC CONSULTATION.

So here I am, attending one of the Public Consultations here at Venezia Hotel Subic Bay.

For an ordinary person, this would probably be a B-O-R-I-N-G  thing but for an RH Advocate like me, this is an A-W-S-O-M-E privilege.


Day 1

The participants had a workshop in which they have groupings and each group had to discuss some certain issues.

Teenage Pregnancy

What are the factors that leads to such issue?

Why is it such issue cannot be resolved?

The participants in our group had different views regarding teenage pregnancy. One conversation leads to another but in my M-O-S-T humble opinion, it boils to only one thing: PEER PRESSURE.

Why?

I don't know. I just thought of it. You find out yourself.

Ahahahaha!

I'm just kidding. I just thought that I've been babbling B-O-R-I-N-G things so I just made a joke there (Come on! I know you laughed or at least smiled).

Hmm... How do I start explaining my point on this?

In my own point of view, the younger generation of nowadays are VERY L-I-B-E-R-A-T-E-D and that could be the cause of the technology we have now. They social media is one. They can see that kids of their own age have Facebook statuses of "In a relationship with..." or "Married to..." so they pressure themselves that they need to be in a relationship. Then what's next? SULIT.COM, "Hanap. Usap. Deal." ("Find. Talk. Deal.")

"One thing leads to another."

See my point?


HIV & AIDS

Oooohh! One of the controversial issues discussed during the RH Bill debate.

Before the workshop started, they discussed the census of the HIV cases here in the Philippines. They presented that most of the infected persons are those men who are having sex with other men (OUCH! I've been S-H-O-T! That hurts! Right in the gutter!) and these persons are usually call center agents.

During the workshop, the participants of our group told different things why this virus keeps on spreading like wild fire and how come a lot of people are afraid to get tested?

To answer the first question, this is how I viewed it...

UNPROTECTED SEX

Simple, "Nangangati pero walang kapote"  (Itchy but no protecty.) and they don't know the ABCs.

Abstain
Be faithful
Condoms

To answer the second question, my point of view would be...

STIGMA

Would like to be seen by your own neighbor/sister/parents walking inside an HIV Testing Center? Oh, napaisip ka, di ba? Who would want to be gossiped by others regarding this? Would you? I know I wouldn't.

Sexual & Gender Equality

Our own group discussed deeply on this issue. How come the census of unreported cases are higher than the reported cases? How did these things happen?

In my humble opinion, one thing is for sure: authority and fear is being used for these cases to remain unreported. Sometimes even the authorities themselves don't like to handle these things because for them it's a "private thing" and it should remain that way. I mean, come on! You were in that seat to SERVE THE PEOPLE not to OBSERVE THE PEOPLE. Geez!

There are still a lot of things discussed within the time frame of the workshop such as sexual & gender equality and human trafficking but since the topic is all about reproductive health and sexuality education, I would like to RANT about this things only.

(I can smell dinner coming. S-I-N-I-G-A-N-G, beybeh!)