What Philippine schools actually teach about sexuality
MANILA, Philippines — Amid heated debate over how much schools should teach students about their bodies, Education Secretary Sonny Angara has made one thing clear: the Department of Education is not teaching masturbation to young children.
"We were alarmed when we heard these claims, so we checked. Such teaching doesn't exist in our curriculum," Angara said in Filipino at a forum on Wednesday, January 22.
Controversy over the department's present sex education curriculum, and a pending Senate bill that integrates this with the prevention of adolescent pregnancy, has prompted outcry from critics who feared these introduce explicit sexual concepts to young children.
But Angara maintained on Wednesday that lessons under DepEd's comprehensive sex education (CSE) have remained — and will remain — age-appropriate.
"We were alarmed so I ordered a review of CSE, because it seemed it wasn't appropriate to the age group. But when when we checked, there weren't any lessons of that sort," Angara said.
"But nonetheless given what's happened, we will really review [CSE]," he added.
The DepEd secretary's statements address a week-long controversy surrounding both DepEd's CSE program and Senate Bill 1979, the Prevention of Adolescent Pregnancy Bill.
Social media posts claimed the bill would teach childhood masturbation to four-year-olds and introduce sexual concepts to young children – allegations that the bill's author, Sen. Risa Hontiveros, strongly refutes.
The claim stems from a connection critics made between Senate Bill 1979 saying it will be "guided by DepEd and international standards," and DepEd Memorandum Order 31 s. 2018, which references UNESCO standards on sex education.
Project Dalisay (a group under the National Coalition for the Family and the Constitution) created viral videos claiming the bill would "hypersexualize children at a very early age." They alleged that because the bill says it will use international standards as guidance, it would adopt UNESCO's alleged content about teaching masturbation to young children.
However, both DepEd and Hontiveros have clarified in separate statements that:
- The bill itself contains no mention of masturbation or exploring sexualities
- "Guided by international standards" doesn't mean copying everything
- DepEd says its actual curriculum is localized and age-appropriate
Angara emphasized that while sex education is already mandated under existing laws for reproductive health and HIV/AIDS prevention, implementation must remain culturally appropriate.
"We will not introduce content that is offensive or not age-appropriate. We will definitely adhere to that," Angara said in mixed Filipino and English.
Angara said the Senate bill in question has "good intentions" that aim to address a years-long problem among Filipino youth: lack of awareness about the risks of getting pregnant early.
"I think the intention of the bill is to reduce the number of teenage pregnancies because many young girls get pregnant without knowing the consequences afterward," Angara said.
"Beyond that, they are unaware of the responsibilities of being pregnant—they don't know what to eat, how to properly take care of the baby, or how to care for themselves," the DepEd secretary added.
While these topics would ideally be taught at home by parents, Angara noted that many Filipino households no longer consist of nuclear families as several parents work abroad. "So in that case, who acts as the second parent? It's the school. That's why there's a doctrine in law called in loco parentis—you act as the second parent," he said.
Years-long campaign
Health advocates and public officials have long campaigned to arrest the rising number of pregnancies among young Filipino women. Last year, the Commission on Population and Development called to prioritize the passage of Senate Bill 1979 after government data showed live births among girls under 15 years old went up by 35% from 2021 to 2022.
DepEd's current CSE program spreads out topics across different subjects like MAPEH, Araling Panlipunan and Values Education. The earliest discussion of human anatomy begins in kindergarten, limited to basic differences between males and females.
A briefer by the department released last week said: "In the development of Detailed Lesson Plans (DLPs) for CSE, there is no explicit focus on teaching young children’s topics such as oral or anal sex or encouraging exploration of bodily pleasure in inappropriate ways," it added.
DepEd said CSE also teaches students about understanding their own bodies, respecting personal boundaries, recognizing safe and unsafe situations and fostering respect.
"The concern raised reflects a misunderstanding of how CSE is implemented. Teachers undergo training to deliver these lessons professionally and sensitively," the department's briefer said.
No less than Malacañang's "Philippine Population and Development Plan of Action 2023-2028" — the Marcos administration's roadmap for addressing "population challenges" — supports the stronger implementation of CSE.
Approved in November 2023, the document directs different agencies, local government units and private schools to "fully rollout and implement an effective, rights-based, evidence-informed, and gender transformative approach on CSE."
Flip-flop
Opposition to the bill has reached President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who expressed concerns on Monday, January 20, citing a notion that the bill would explicitly teach children about masturbation. He had initially voiced support for the measure.
In response, Hontiveros said the bill does not contain such provisions and that she would be willing to accept amendments that would steer the bill to passage.
The House of Representatives, dominated by the president's allies and led by his cousin, unanimously approved the lower chamber's version of the bill on third reading in September 2023.
This measure also includes the rollout of age- and developmentally-appropriate comprehensive adolescent sexuality education.
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