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BY TIFFANY ANNE TAN
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BACOLOD City – National Youth Commission (NYC) chair Aiza Seguerra wants to lower the minimum age for immediate access to reproductive health (RH) services and HIV testing.
Right now children under 18 “still have to get parental authority or consent to access RH (services) and get tested for HIV,” Seguerra told a news conference at the Negros Press Club on Wednesday, Nov. 30.
Allowing them access to these medical services will, among others, prevent teenage pregnancies and the spread of the dreaded virus, the self-identified transgender man singer-songwriter said.
“Let us not be hypocrites. [Let us be] realistic. It (teenage pregnancy) is happening. Ang iba makapaghintay, ang iba hindi,” he said, adding: “I am not encouraging risky behavior or premarital sex.”
While expecting opposition from the Catholic Church, Seguerra stressed that “our constituents are the youth, whatever their religion.”
He pointed out that the commission is “rights-based.” If anyone says anything against him for what he is pushing, “so be it.”
Earlier Seguerra expressed concern over the rising number of young Filipinos testing positive for HIV, the virus that causes the still incurable AIDS. He described it the “worsening youth epidemic in the country.”
“The NYC is extremely alarmed by the unprecedented spike in HIV infection among our youth,” he said. “HIV/AIDS is one of the most urgent concerns facing the Filipino youth today.
“Our young people are at risk and vulnerable. The HIV epidemic in our country has a new face and it is the face of a young person.”
According to the NYC, 62 percent of new HIV cases in the Philippines this year were people aged 15 to 24 years old.
“Out of the 29 Filipinos who get infected every day in the Philippines, more than half (19) are 15 to 24 years old,” the commission said. “Twenty-five out of the 29 are 15 to 30 years old.”/PN
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