DepEd sex ed

As expected, the Department of Education caved in to pressures applied by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines and shelved its planned sex education program for public high schools.

The CBCP had complained that the DepEd was encouraging pre-marital sex and sexual promiscuity by teaching high school students the use of condoms and other contraceptives. Lay Catholic groups had also charged that the sex education modules misled students into believing that condoms are 100 percent effective when, in fact, according to them, they are not.

Hidalgo explained that the program was intended to help adolescents to "understand their sexuality and protect them from unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases and subsequent risk of infertility." Moreover, the young were taught reproductive health, as well as the dangers of overpopulation and pre-marital sex.

That the DepEd gave up too easily is another indication of the inordinate power of the Catholic Church in controlling official population policy in this country. It also proves the overwhelming influence of politics over sound government policy.

As business leader Oscar Lopez told the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry recently, the need to kow-tow to the Catholic Church has forced leaders of this country, especially former President Cory Aquino, and now GMA, to sacrifice an urgently-needed and comprehensive population policy at the altar of political expediency.

As a life-long Catholic myself, I do not begrudge the Catholic Church its right to stand firmly on doctrinal beliefs and insist that its members adhere to these beliefs. It can punish those who stray from these beliefs, including politicians. However, as it preaches and influences public policy, I also believe the Church is obliged to contribute viable solutions to undeniable problems of this country.

One of these pressing problems is overpopulation. If our economic growth is effectively cancelled by, among other things, our population growth, as the business sector argues, the Church shouldn’t stand idly by, pretend the problem doesn’t exist and continue to recite theology. That may be good for the pulpit, but it is not effective or responsible public policy.

The position of some, both in the clergy and in the laity, is that overpopulation is not a problem. A rising population, they argue, is an important factor of sustained growth. They cite industrialized countries that today worry about negative replacement rates, that is, more people are dying than are being born and existing populations are aging rapidly.

In addition, blame is, with considerable plausibility, squarely placed on "bad governance." The dissipation of public resources through corruption is indeed a major reason for the scandalous lack of vital social services such as education, health care and housing. Bad governance, they say, has also led to the neglect of agriculture and food security. But the lack of a population policy isn’t the culprit.

This debate, while not entirely pointless, overlooks the problems that already exist and are the indubitable result of unbridled population growth. While we argue endlessly, those problems are building up, some of them to unmanageable proportions. Although the government churns out statistics saying that poverty levels are decreasing, that is as arguable as whether the nation has a classroom shortage or not, i.e. it depends on how you define "shortage" and "poverty level."

We do not need myopic government statisticians or expensive foreign consultants to tell us that our country has not licked poverty and lags far behind our neighbors in the region in terms of social services. All the pontificating about negative replacement rates in other countries often forgets that those countries long ago joined the ranks of developed countries.

Those countries with declining and aging populations have likely eliminated endemic poverty and have well-established social services. Most are now preoccupied with efforts to provide more decent facilities for retirees from the work force who were largely responsible for helping the country attain its present level of development.

So, what do we do now? Teach more people about "responsible parenthood" and "natural methods" of avoiding conception? Well, we can continue to do that, of course, but if you consult National Statistics Office records, you will find that reliance on those "approved" methods languishes at the bottom of methods actually used by couples who don’t want more unwanted pregnancies.

And the figures are there for all to see. The reality: The population is still growing. There is some dispute about whether the rate of growth is the same or slightly down. That argument is pointless, really. Whatever the real growth rate, it is large enough to substantially eat into the rate of growth of our economy.

What’s left in our annual growth isn’t enough to keep development at a fast enough clip to make a real dent in poverty levels. It doesn’t leave enough to build new infrastructure for the future, provide those social services, improve law enforcement facilities or ensure the defense of our borders. It’s not enough assuming corruption were completely eradicated, which doesn’t happen even in the most advanced countries.

Lastly, I perceive a disconnect here somewhere. Even as the Catholic Church rails against official population policy, I know many Catholics use artificial birth control methods and do not feel any guilt abut continuing to attend Mass regularly and receiving the Sacraments. NSO statistics show that at the top of the list of contraceptives used, natural or otherwise, with or without government support, are birth control pills.

Still, I haven’t lost faith in the ability of the Church to respond to the needs of the times, or to the imperatives of governing a country. Maybe there is as yet an undiscovered middle ground which the Holy Spirit will reveal, an enlightened way that upholds basic truths but takes political reality into account.

The Church might start by reconsidering its position on sex education for public high school students. Review the modules, if you must, and eliminate the untruths. But don’t totally discard it, for heaven’s sake. Our youth are already subject to more temptations than our clergy might care to think. What they need is more guidance from their elders, not more disagreement and debate.