Health Secretary Jean Paulyn Ubial on Wednesday said the Department of Health respects the decision of the Department of Education to develop and disseminate an age-appropriate reproductive health education in schools after abandoning its plan to distribute condoms in schools.
The DepEd’s decision, Ubial said, will raise awareness on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) among the youth.
She noted that a strengthened curriculum which focuses on reproductive health education is an essential component of the DOH’s comprehensive prevention and control program focusing on abstinence, condom use, early HIV testing, counseling, antiretroviral treatment and ending stigmatization and discrimination, and acceptance by families and communities to Filipinos living with HIV.
The health chief also said the provision of services in schools to improve condom access is not a primary consideration anymore after the DoH and DepEd agreed to take different options that shall complement each other’s respective mandates.
According to Ubial, the DepEd will focus on the strengthened development of its curriculum especially on reproductive health whereas the DoH will work with other partners to ensure information is linked to service provision including but not limited to condom access.
“We can stop HIV transmission only through a collective societal effort, focusing on widespread HIV awareness among the youth and vulnerable populations, establishing test and treat service delivery networks nationwide and ending stigmatization and discrimination in workplaces,” said Ubial.
“We need to foster real collaboration with other government agencies such as the Department of Education, as well as community-based organizations in order to reach the young key population with correct information on HIV and its consequences and how to stop its transmission and spread,” Ubial also said.
The Health department has decided to stop condom distribution in schools following DepEd’s decision to block the DoH initiative.
DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones said the DepEd will not be involved in the DOH condom distribution program, noting that the health centers are ones that are supposed to do this.
“Nothing within the school premises because right now, you have the health centers who are already tasked with that function,” Briones said.
Briones also cited the agency’s responsibilities, based on an executive order and a Supreme Court decision, to enhance gender sensitivity and reproductive health education.
“We will follow the Unesco guidelines on reproductive health, including the requirements of the Constitution and the law… obviously what we’re allowed to do is to improve the curriculum. Nothing within the school premises because right now you have the health centers who are already tasked with that function… ‘Yung consequence ng premarital sex, the dangers involved but not the distribution,” Briones said.
The DepEd also promised to improve and develop sex education in the country that is covered by the human rights frameworks, as well as the safety of the students with age-appropriate and developmental reproductive health education that will start in Grade 1.
Critics of the reproductive health law like Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III had scored Ubial for its plan to distribute condoms in schools, claiming that this would promote pre-marital sex among teenagers.
Ubial had stood her ground, citing “studies globally” that showed providing comdoms did not promote promiscuity and even made sexually-active teens more cautious and knowledgeable about unplanned pregnancies and sexually-transmitted infections.
Ubial said that from July to Oct. 16 last year, the health department recorded 3,112 new HIV cases in the country, bringing to 38,114 the cumulative cases since 1984.