One reason Cebuanos didn’t hear a squeak of protest from the Cebu Archdiocese about a proposed ordinance to introduce sex education subjects in the province’s school curriculum this past week is that no mention was made about providing access to reproductive health care methods like contraception.
The ordinance authored by Provincial Board (PB) Member Miguel Magpale is aimed at reinforcing the implementation of the Reproductive Health (RH) law which had been strongly opposed by the Catholic Church because it allows the government purchase and promotion of condoms, birth control pills and other contraceptives.
Knowing this sensitive point, the PB deferred discussion of the ordinance on second reading in order to entertain questions on the measure like those posed by fellow PB Member Peter Calderon.
Any doubts about the Church’s influence on the proposed ordinance are set aside by the statements of Magpale’s mother, Cebu Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale, who said there should be a clear distinction between the proposed PB measure and the RH law.
Expect the draft ordinance then to toe the unofficial but still Catholic Church line on sex education and population programs, which are abstinence and the use of traditional family planning methods.
The initial provisions of the proposed ordinance look good: the teaching of sex education subjects would be done by qualified instructors in an age-appropriate setting and it would also establish a peer counseling center.
The counseling center would go a long way towards educating teenagers to be more responsible and aware of the consequences of promiscuous behavior not only in causing unwanted teenage pregnancies but in avoiding the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases.
Lack of sexual education coupled with an increasingly liberal attitude towards sex has contributed to the rise of STD cases especially in urban areas where there’s a growing number of businesses that employ people working on night shifts than ever before.
If only for that, we think public awareness on the proposed PB ordinance should be raised in order to encourage discussion and further refinement of the measure as Magpale said to maybe include the menace of cyber-pornography and the dangers posed by human traffickers.
We also hope the PB doesn’t defer deliberations on the measure for too long that it won’t be implemented in the next school year.