The chair of the House committee on basic education yesterday criticized the Department of Education (DepEd) for claiming that its directive on Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) does not include discussing sexual reproduction to school children after he found out that the department adheres to the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization’s (Unesco) definition of CSE.
Pasig Rep. Roman Romulo questioned the DepEd’s Department Order (DO) No. 31 in 2018, which spells out its policy guidelines on the implementation of CSE, since the DepEd claimed that it was anchored only on the provisions of Republic Act No. 10354 or the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012 of the Reproductive Health (RH) law.
“Based on your own issuances, it seems you are implementing CSE based on Unesco or international agreements,” Romulo said during the briefing by the DepEd on the CSE, specifically on the program’s legal basis, and status of implementation and the core topic per Grade level in the K to 12 curriculum.
“That is the problem with what DepEd is doing. 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,” the lawmaker added.
Romulo said the DepEd’s website would show that under the category of clustering K to Grade 3 core skills, there are topics about “intimacy and reproduction.”
“I mean, including sexual body. That’s the problem,” he said, pointing out that the implementation of the CSE seems to be anchored on UNESCO’s definition of sexuality “as the core dimension of being human which includes the understanding of and relationship to the human body, emotional attachment and love, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, sexual intimacy, pleasure and reproduction.
The briefing on CSE was called amid public discussions about Senate Bill No. 1979 seeking to promote sex education and prevent teenage pregnancies. Seven senators who had previously signed the draft legislation withdrew their signature.
This, after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. vowed to veto the bill if passed by Congress.
The proposed Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Act is “abhorrent, appalling, a travesty, and full of absurdities,” Marcos said adding that he personally supports sex education and considers it extremely important, but he “found some ‘woke’ elements that are inappropriate for younger children” when he reviewed the proposed bill.
Earlier, Senate assistant minority floor leader Risa Hontiveros, main author of the measure, said the bill “does not intend to completely adopt the standards set by the WHO and Unesco, saying that the protection and care of children are the primary objectives of the measure.”
Education Assistant Secretary for curriculum and teaching Janir Datukan maintained that sexuality is not being taught to Kindergarten up to Grade 3 students, stressing that the discussions are always age-appropriate.
“Foundational, we don’t really talk about sexuality at that point, what we’re doing is we’re making them aware of certain things that they need to know. For example, in kindergarten, they identify the body parts, which is part of their lessons,” said Datukan.
Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr. showed a supposed DepEd document which states that body parts can be described using different sense organs, which Datukan denied, saying “we don’t have that in our curriculum.”
As the continuing back and forth about the proposed legislation rages, Hontiveros on Wednesday filed in the Senate a substitute bill that addresses the concerns of her fellow lawmakers. The measure is still up for debate in the plenary with the Senate set to adjourn sine die in June.
Earlier, Rep. Rufus Rodriguez sought to seek the recall of the Lower Chamber’s approval of the measure. The House in 2023 passed the bill on final reading.