MANILA: Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos denounced on Monday (Jan 20) a proposed law to make sex education mandatory in schools in the conservative mainly Catholic nation, alleging it would teach 4-year-olds to pleasure themselves.
Marcos vowed to veto the Bill in the event it hurdles Congress, blaming people with a “woke” mentality for what he said was an “abhorrent” and “ridiculous” idea.
Legislators backing the “Prevention of Adolescent Pregnancy” Bill said making it a mandatory subject in schools would help address a high rate of teen pregnancies, as well as sexual assault of minors.
“Over the weekend, I finally read in detail Senate Bill 1979. And I was shocked, and I was appalled by some of the — some of the elements of that,” Marcos told reporters.
“You will teach four-year-olds how to masturbate. That every child has the right to try different sexualities. This is ridiculous,” Marcos said.
“If this Bill is passed in that form, I guarantee all parents, teachers, and children: I will immediately veto it.”
The Senate Bill would mandate the government to promote “age-appropriate” and compulsory “comprehensive sexuality education” in schools that is “medically accurate, culturally sensitive, rights-based, and inclusive and non-discriminatory”.
Sex education was incorporated into the public school curriculum for students aged 10 to 19 in 2012 with the passage of a reproductive health law, though private schools, many of them run by the Catholic Church, are not required to teach it.
Senator Risa Hontiveros denied that her Bill contained the terms “masturbation” and trying “different sexualities”, but added: “I am willing to accept amendments to refine the Bill so we can steer it to passage.”
Her aides told AFP the Senate has yet to schedule the Bill for a floor debate, making it unlikely it will be passed before the legislature adjourns early next month ahead of the May 12 midterm elections.
