A NINE-YEAR-OLD girl in Cebu became the youngest mother in Central Visayas after she gave birth at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC).
The Regional Population Commission (PopCom-7) also identified a 12-year-old girl from Bogo City who gave birth last year. PopCom-7 director Bruce Ragas said the rise in early pregnancy rates in Cebu is alarming.
“We are helping them (youth) by holding empowerment, education drives and seminars,” he told reporters.
Based on PopCom-7’s 2013 figures, Central Visayas ranks sixth in the country where 2.7 percent males and 1.3 percent females engage in sexual intercourse before age 15.
Ragas said PopCom’s Adolescent Health and Youth Development Program (ADHYP) will focus on reducing the incidence of teenage pregnancy, premarital sex, physical and sexual violence and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in the region.