Prelate to Noynoy: Stop sex education in schools

A Catholic bishop on Monday urged President-elect Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III to stop the government's sex-education program in schools as soon as she assumes the presidency on June 30. "Being a Christian, [Aquino should] do what is according to moral law, according to the dignity and rights of every Filipino," said Pampanga Archbishop Paciano Aniceto, chairman of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines Commission on Family and Life, in an article posted Monday night on the CBCP news site. The Department of Education (DepEd) will implement this school year its Adolescent Reproductive Health program in 80 public and elementary and 79 high schools. Aniceto reiterated parents have the sole responsibility of teaching their children about human sexuality. But in cases where parents are working abroad and their children are left behind, he said the burden of teaching sex education would fall with the relatives, parent-teacher associations, Church-based groups such as Couples for Christ and Catholic Women’s League, and parish-based youth organizations.

For her part, Human Life International-Asia executive director Dr. Ligaya Acosta criticized government for insisting that children need a course of instruction in sex education. She said sex education “is actually a course in systematic behavior modification, designed to change the child’s entire belief system." She claimed there is a rapid escalating rate of teen pregnancy and an exploding Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) epidemic in nations where there is sex education and aggressive contraceptive use. “The glaring truth is that researches around the world substantiate the fact that the more contraceptive programs are aimed at the young, the more pregnancies, abortions, promiscuity, sexually transmitted diseases, and cancer of the cervix results," she said. - KBK, GMANews.TV