ILOILO City – More needs to be done to combat teenage pregnancies in Western Visayas, according to the Commission on Population (POPCOM).
“Both the national and local governments should double time sa paghimu sang mga layi kag programa para matapna ang adolescent births,” stressed Harold Alfred Marshall, director of POPCOM Region 6.
Citing the Philippine Statistics Authority’s 2019 data, Marshall said 9,766 births in the six provinces and two highly-urbanized cities in the region were by teenaged mothers 19 years old and below.
Of the total figure, 17 girls considered as “very young adolescents” aged 12 to 13 gave birth.
“Masubo nga may ara kita tatlo ka 12-year olds and14 ka 13-year olds nga nagbusong,” Marshall lamented.
But what’s more worrying, according to Marshall, was some early pregnancies reported were perceived to be related to abuse and forced sex or rape.
He said most of the 12-year-old mothers – two from Negros Occidental and one from Iloilo province – were likely impregnated by men older than they were.
“For a 12 years old, kalayo nga may full consent. Probably these pregnancies were due to sexual abuse,” Marshall said.
He also noted that out of the 105,225 total number of births in 2019, 2.9 percent were by teenaged mothers 12 years old to 19 years old.
“It’s alarming. These are very young people kag ang ila bwas damlag kasanag pa man tani pero amo ini unfortunately ang natabo sa ila,” Marshall lamented.
Marshall also attributed the region’s teenage pregnancy cases to socioeconomic concerns; lack of access to age-appropriate information; sociological and psychological cultural factors such peer pressure; and family problems.
POPCOM-6 is currently consolidating all the data gathered in 2020.
According to Marshall, they were still assessing if the quarantine measures imposed to stem the spread of coronavirus indeed contributed to the numbers of teenage pregnancy cases in the region.
He also noted one of the measures the agency is pushing – children must have access to age-appropriate sex education “from an early age,” as well as information and services to make sex safer and avoid unplanned pregnancies.
RAISING AGE OF CONSENT
Early December last year, the House of Representatives approved on third and final reading a measure raising the age of statutory rape from the current 12 years old to 16 to protect young people from sexual exploitation and abuse.
House Bill 7836 sets the age of sexual consent to 16 and amends the Anti-Rape Law, as well as the Revised Penal Code. It was passed with 207 affirmative votes, three negative votes and no abstention.
The proposed bill carries a penalty of life imprisonment, though it would not punish young couples close in age.
According to Sen. Risa Hontiveros, the proposal already passed the committee level. But a report has yet to be routed for signatures before it could be elevated to the plenary and be signed by President Rodrigo Duterte into law./PN
