❁ Promoting Safe Sex & Contraceptives in Lila

We are proud to announce our collaboration with Jehna and Justin in the movement of promoting safe sex and contraceptives in Lila.

We recognise the community initiatives of the International Lila Reunion and take this opportunity to also raise awareness on the issues faced by the youth of Lila.

We believe that this would be the perfect time to educate the public, especially the youth, on the importance of safe sex and sexually transmitted diseases. We understand that people may have a different stance on this particular topic, but people must face the reality and understand that we are in a different time period where this generation is noticeably sexually active.

The concern rises when the legal age of consent in the Philippines is 12 years old yet, the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health (RPRH) Law requires parental consent for women below the age of 18 to obtain family planning services from public health facilities (Marquez, Kabamalan, & Laguna, 2018).

This leads to various barriers as the parents of sexually active teenagers are unaware of their child’s sexual lifestyle and are protective of them; that the majority believe that using contraceptives or promoting safe sex is encouraging this type of risky behaviour which is not true. In this day and age, the influence of peers, social media, and gender norms are leading factors on these types of influences.

The Philippine Statistics Authority, states that in 2019, school dropouts reached over 2.97 million in the Philippines. Over 60 percent are girls aged 16-24 who are forced into marriage due to underage pregnancy (Porcalla & Crisostomo, 2019).

“According to the Population Commission (PopCom), 24 babies are born to teenage mothers every hour and almost 200,000 Filipino teens get pregnant annually, most of them from ages 15 to 19” (Porcalla & Crisostomo, 2019).

“The Philippines has the gold medal in HIV and in teen pregnancy (increase),” said Percival Cendaña, commissioner of the National Youth Commission. “This is not a gold medal that we can be proud to wear” (Santos, 2014).

Teenage pregnancy perpetuates this vicious cycle of poverty and poor health. Teenage pregnancy poses a risk to the life of the young mother and her baby, and can also affect their health, educational and employment outcomes.

Please take the time to do your research and educate yourself on the topic of safe sex and contraceptives. If you want to engage in sexual activities and do not want to get pregnant, you need to use contraceptives.

References:

Marquez, M. P., Kabamalan, M. M., & Laguna, E. 2018. Traditional and Modern
Contraceptive Method Use in the Philippines: Trends and Determinants 2003–2013. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29665078

Porcalla, D. & Crisostomo, S. 2019. DepEd: High dropout rate due to teenage pregnancy. Retrieved from
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2019/09/05/1949246/deped-high-dropout-rate-due- teenage-pregnancy#vodQlIv3rBMsvYJm.99

Santos, A. P. 2014. HIV and teen pregnancy: A national youth crisis. Retrieved from https://www.rappler.com/move-ph/76724-hiv-teen-pregnancy-philippines-youth-crisis