Group withdraws suit vs sex education

MANILA, Philippines - A group of parents has withdrawn a class suit against the Department of Education sex education program to pave the way for the review of the implementation of the controversial program by the new DepEd secretary.

The ABS-CBN website quoted the leader of the group, lawyer Jo Imbong, as saying that their lawyer has made an oral motion to dismiss the case since it still lists former education secretary Mona Valisno as respondent.

Imbong said they cannot substitute the new education secretary, Bro. Armin Luistro, as respondent since he had already said that he will review the implementation of the sex education program.

The court reportedly granted the motion to withdraw the civil suit filed by Imbong. The withdrawal of the suit came after the Quezon City regional trial court denied the petition for prohibition with a prayer for preliminary injunction or temporary restraining order (TRO) filed last month.

In the 27-page complaint, the petitioners asked the court to stop the teaching of sex education and declare DepEd Memorandum 261 series of 2005 as null and void.

On July 5, the Quezon City regional trial court denied the petition for a TRO because the petitioners did not prove that their rights were violated because they failed to show their children were studying in the schools where the sex education module would be tested.