Pasig Rep. Roman Romulo, chair of the House Committee on Basic Education and Culture, presides over a meeting in this file photo taken on Nov. 6, 2023. (Photo from a video posted on the Facebook page of the House of Representatives)
MANILA, Philippines 鈥� Pasig City Rep. Roman Romulo has called out the Department of Education (DepEd) for insisting that its directive on comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) is innocent, when the documents actually include teaching intimacy and reproduction to Kindergarten to Grade 3 students.
At the hearing of the House of Representatives鈥� committee on basic education and culture on Monday, Romulo claimed that DepEd gives a different definition to their CSE when in front of the media, only to be discovered by lawmakers that Department Order (DO) No. 31 adheres with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) description.
DO No. 31 released in 2018 contains the DepEd鈥檚 policy guidelines on the implementation of the CSE.
Romulo, chairperson of the said committee, said that this goes contrary to DepEd鈥檚 claims about hinging their CSE on Republic Act No. 10354 听or the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012, more commonly known as the RH (Reproductive Health) law.
READ: DepEd under scrutiny for bringing sex ed to K-12 using RH law as basis听
鈥淏ased on your own issuances, it seems you are implementing CSE based on Unesco or international agreements.听 And let me again make this clear: these came from the website of Unesco.听 They have a different definition, they define sexuality as the core dimension of being human which includes the understanding of and relationship to the human body, emotional attachment and love,听sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, sexual intimacy, pleasure and reproduction,鈥� he said.
鈥淭hat is the problem with what DepEd is doing.听 You are telling the media and those whom you want to please that Department Order 31 is so innocent, but you are releasing a different definition.听 Like this one. Don鈥檛 tell me this is the first time you saw this, this came from your website [鈥 clustering K to Grade 3 core skills.听 There is intimacy and reproduction.听 I mean, including sexual body.听 That鈥檚 the problem,鈥� he added.
Romulo鈥檚 criticism came after Manila 6th District Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr. showed a document supposedly from DeEd, where it was allegedly stated that body parts can be described using different sense organs.
Education Assistant Secretary for Curriculum and Teaching Janir Datukan however said that he does not remember putting such a definition in the DepEd-issued curriculum.
鈥淲hat are the core messages here?听 The human body and development.听 In the human body and development, Mr. Chair, it says here, sexual and reproductive parts are vital parts of the body.听 That is what is stated in your core message,鈥� Abante said.
鈥淭he body parts can be described using the different sense organs.听 Different people have different bodies and capacities, including of the sexual body parts.听I鈥檇 like to find out, Mr. Chair, in what grade are you teaching this?鈥� he asked.
鈥淢r. Chair, I don鈥檛 remember putting that in our curriculum anywhere.听We鈥檙e not identifying the body parts using the senses.听 We don鈥檛 have that in the curriculum,鈥� Datukan noted.
Furthermore, Datukan noted that discussions on CSE especially for K to 3 or Kindergarten to Grade 3 pupils are always age-appropriate.
鈥淔oundational, we don鈥檛 really talk about sexuality at that point, what we鈥檙e doing is we鈥檙e making them aware of certain things that they need to know.听 For example, in kindergarten, they identify the body parts, which is part of their lessons,鈥� Datukan said.
鈥淔or Grade 1, for example, in Makabansa, it is stated here for example, there is a need to teach students about the different kinds of physical traits [鈥 For Grade 2, for example, in GMRC, to exercise patience by using courteous words and proper behavior.听 For Grade 3, for example, in science, describe the characteristics of living things, they grow, they respond, and they reproduce.听 So those are already existing,鈥� he added.
Discussions on CSE gained traction after several groups raised apprehensions with Senate Bill (SB) No. 1979, or the proposed Prevention of Adolescent Pregnancy Act of 2023 鈥� which contains provisions about the teaching of CSE to all grade levels.
According to several groups, the听CSE听aims to discuss sexual concepts to children who may not yet be able to grasp these issues properly.
Project Dalisay, a pro-children wing of the National Coalition for the Family and the Constitution, has submitted an online petition seeking to junk SB No. 1979, claiming that the legislation poses a significant threat to the country鈥檚 societal, moral, and spiritual foundations.
The issue raised by these groups appeared to stem from Section 6 of the bill, which makes听CSE听a 鈥渃ompulsory part of education, integrated at all levels with the end goal of normalizing discussions about adolescent sexuality and reproductive health and to remove stigma at all levels.鈥�
But Senator Risa Hontiveros, principal author of the bill, claimed that criticisms towards the bill are mere fabrications and lies, saying that the proposed measure does not contain any provision seeking to encourage masturbation to children aged 0 to 4 or teach bodily pleasure to children aged six to nine.
READ: Hontiveros refutes critics of prevention of adolescent pregnancy bill听
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. initially supported the bill, saying that Filipinos need to understand how detrimental to health and to society as a whole teenage pregnancies are.听听However, the President last Monday said he is shocked and appalled by some of the details of the proposed law.
Hontiveros meanwhile assured Marcos that there are no problematic provisions in the bill.