The demographic dividend of the Philippines: Sex is only for marriage
(Part 10)
It is providential that Donald Trump has made it very clear that he will do everything in his power as the new President of the US to root out the very morally dangerous “woke culture” that was encouraged by the previous US administration. President Trump minced no words when his first pronouncement on this issue was that there only two sexes recognized in American society: male and female, to the great consternation of the LGBTQ+ advocates. President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. thinks along the same line. On Jan. 20, the day Mr. Trump was sworn into office, Mr. Marcos Jr. said he was appalled by some elements in Senate Bill 1979, the proposed Prevention of Adolescent Pregnancy Act, blaming the “woke mentality” that he said some proponents were trying to bring into our system.
His statement came after an NGO named Project Dalisay, which is led by former Chief Justice Maria Lourdes P.A. Sereno, linked the Bill’s sex education provision to a technical guidance by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the World Health Organization for sex education to tackle the issue of masturbation among children. The documents issued by these two international organizations are very candid in proposing the normalization of masturbation.
One does not have to be deeply religious to accept as reasonable the dictum that “beasts copulate, but human beings are meant to marry.” Men and women are meant for lasting, loving relationships. They are the pillars and the foundation of the human family. It is important to drum this truth into the minds of young people. Animals can meet and mate for one day and never see each other again. That does not apply to persons. In sexuality education, the teacher and the parent must prepare the students not just for sex and its consequences but for marriage, that permanent loving bond which is the only right context for human intercourse.
Sexuality education must be accompanied by an education in human freedom and responsibility. The young must be taught as early as possible in life that freedom is not the ability to do what one pleases. It is the ability to choose what is right, what is good.
Irish writer Cormac Burke calls these the “Rules of Life.” These rules stem from objective realities, e.g., alcohol intoxicates, fire burns, electricity electrocutes, copulation can lead to pregnancy. If a person wishes to be truly free, he has to use things according to their purpose or else they backfire on him and he ends up with more problematic things to contend with than when he first began. No matter who someone is, or what he thinks or does, he is not excused from being governed by life’s rules. He can ignore these rules, defy them, or disregard them, but they still hold true. It is only by respecting these rules that one finds the fulfillment of freedom.
In the relations among individuals, the ultimate responsibility is to respect the inviolable dignity of the human person. For someone who believes that one is created by God, and that one’s existence was willed by the same God from eternity past, the person is of infinite value and worthy of being loved for his or her own sake. To use a person merely for the sake of the pleasure or comfort he or she can provide, without regard for that person’s welfare, is to go against the dignity of that person. In sexual matters, anyone who treats another person (whether of the opposite or same sex) as merely an object of pleasure is going against the dignity of that person.
Any kind of sexual act that is outside of marriage, no matter how strong the feelings of “love” may be, goes against the dignity of a person who deserves to be loved completely, exclusively, and permanently. Outside of marriage, there is no reassurance of committed love. Only in marriage can a person give himself to the other until death calls. Outside of it, the commitment lasts only as long as the pleasure lasts. In this type of sexual relationship, there can be no real loving but merely using or exploiting.
It is fundamentally wrong and counterproductive to teach teenagers to use condoms or other contraceptives in order to reduce the large number of teenage pregnancies in the Philippines. As we have seen above, an education that merely addresses the biological realities of the person is insufficient and can potentially damage the student. The narrow educational approach could lead the student to set the importance of the soul and its needs aside or beneath the desires of his or her flesh and senses. This may lead him or her to solely seek bodily pleasure instead of pursuing higher good which can demand that he give up some or all of his comforts.
On the other hand, an education that merely deals with the soul and neglects to acknowledge the senses and the passions, can also lead to unbearable frustration for the student. It must be emphasized that feelings and emotions run high, especially during adolescence, and that the student needs to understand that these emotions are not bad in and of themselves but that they must be used to pursue greater good.
These introductory principles are fully developed in eight separate books used at different levels of basic education from Grades 5 to 12, corresponding to the pre-teen and mid-teen ages, i.e., 11 to 18 years of age. The themes covered in ascending order are: Our Sexuality: What We Are; Our Home, Our Folks, Our Family; Our Classmates, Our Friends, Our Peers, Our Barkada; Sex: Its Nature, Purpose, Joys, Travails, and Challenges; Attraction and Courtship, Hanging Out, Dating and Relationships; Engagement and Marriage; Human Reproduction and Reproductive Well-being; Population, Economics and Population Management; and, finally at the Grade 12 level, special questions covering pre-marital sex, homosexuality, open parties, fashion, drugs, social networking, contraception, abortion, divorce and remarriage.
This set of books on Sexuality Education first appeared in 2013 and were updated in 2024. They were first used widely in the public school system in 2014. Accredited users number about 500 schools spread out all over the National Capital Region and the Calabarzon region. Authorization is given by an NGO, (Alalay sa Pamilya at Bayan carrying an expanding nationwide program) called Campaign for Character Education Tenacity (CACHET). The lead faculty come from the University of Asia and the Pacific where the teachers-coaches get their training. The contents of the books were made available online at cost by the Department of Education under the previous leadership and negotiations have started with the office of the current Secretary of Education. Interested parties may contact Global Creative Publishing House, care of Andrea Gomez at 0995-323-8503.
Bernardo M. Villegas has a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard, is professor emeritus at the University of Asia and the Pacific, and a visiting professor at the IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain. He was a member of the 1986 Constitutional Commission.
