By Antonio J. Montalvan II
Inquirer
Last updated 01:03am (Mla time) 11/26/2007

MANILA, Philippines- My student very confidently tells the class that to keep the young off sex and teen pregnancy, the antidote can only be contraceptives. “We are now in the practical age,” she says. It goes without saying, of course, that little did she know about the “practicality” of what the statistics say, not to mention the attendant problems that the “antidote” spreads erroneously across societies.

Addressing such mistaken approaches, pervasive as they already are, as the root of worsening incidences on teen pregnancy, live-in arrangements, promiscuity and even youth violence, was the raison d’être behind last week’s Second International Congress on Education in Love, Sex and Life held at the Edsa Shangri-La Hotel in Manila.

Sex education is a favorite topic that we often debate in television talk shows, legislative halls, chat rooms and blogs. But the arguments remain redundant—reducing teenage pregnancies and diseases as the solutions—rather than concern for the good of young people themselves. Too often we hear anti-life advocates and latter-day Malthusian philosophers scoff at abstinence education—impossible, so they say, given the pervasiveness of sexual promiscuity among the young—as though it were a “roundabout and unrealistic way of reducing the bad statistics.”

The common model is to use American statistics, as we all know that in the United States contraception is socially promoted and liberally practiced. For instance, current news stories toast Sep Juico, the Quezon City councilor, for repeating the American model that contraception will reduce the incidence of abortion. The US statistics, however, tell us the opposite. Abortion cases have risen tremendously there despite the liberal application of contraceptive use. It just does not follow. Clearly the problem lies somewhere else.

Earlier this year, a survey by the US National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy instead manifested what people would rather hear: a strong abstinence message. It would appear that there is a sizable majority of parents and young people themselves who recognize that postponing sex for marriage is better for them than experimenting with sex and premature romantic relationships. Expect the “ultra-modern” pundits to balk at this. But let the statistics talk.

In fact, the Manila conference last week was the result of a popular clamor to follow through what had taken place in Mexico in May last year, during the Primer Encuentro Internacional sobre la Educación de la Afectividad y la Sexualidad. Attended by 750 policymakers, parents, social entrepreneurs and development educators from four continents, the highly positive impact of the Mexico congress led to the calling of the second congress, this time in Manila.

Are we truly preparing the young for love and life? Are families and educators addressing this as a matter of growing concern? Those questions were not thrown to congress delegates to debate upon but as the solid foundation—antidote—to a growing phenomenal problem that contraceptives have not solved.

The plain truth remains that so much money has been poured into propaganda and rhetoric, including lobbying in Congress, for the promotion of contraceptive use under the guise of the catch-all “reproductive health,” which does not exclude teen sexuality. Yet, very little impact has been achieved addressing teen sexuality problems. Values education on self-discipline and character has remained elusive, largely because of the myth propagated that sexual liberation has become an immovable mountain.

“Safer sex,” again as empirical data point out, has in fact become a lame proposition. More than one study has concluded that this approach “fails to protect many young people from the bad consequences of sex in the short or long term. Sadly, it will also give them a confused idea of the meaning of sex and rob them of willpower and confidence in the face of pressure.” Just think of what kind of adult generation will take over in “nurturing” the young of tomorrow. Just think what spineless and diffident characters such will produce and who will take over in managing the social problems of the future.

The Manila congress was attended not just by parents and educators, but also by young people themselves, especially those involved in the orientation of youth peers. Who was behind the undertaking? There is an international network of parents and educators who are straight arrows in their objectives. First is InterMedia Consulting based in Rome and Chicago promoting family and educational values. Based in the Philippines is EDUCHILD Foundation Inc., which organizes initiatives for parents and professional educators on family life education and the education of children. Then there is Developmental Advocacy for Women Volunteerism (DAWV Foundation Inc.), a Philippine-based personal initiative of women for the development of women toward social responsibility and poverty alleviation. The congress was organized in collaboration with the Department of Education. Also collaborating were resource sites such as sexrespect.com and charactercounts.org, both of which are in the thick of abstinence and character education.

It may hearten pro-life advocates that the congress sponsors were a veritable who’s who of the Philippine corporate world, such as Globe Telecom, GMA TV and radio, San Miguel Corp., RMN Networks, National Book Store, Universal Robina Corp., Nestlé Philippines, BDO, Insular Life; we thought that anti-life issues were more popular as some in media would falsely harp on us.

The congress slogan captures for us what promise this can do to the young: love, laughter and life ever after.

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