Cabral incurs Church’s ire over grade-school sex education plan

AFTER crossing swords with the Catholic Church over condoms, Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral is ruffling religious feathers again with a move to introduce sex education in schools.

“Imposing lessons about sex on kids as young as 11 wrests the responsibility for bringing up children from parents,” said Monseigneur Pedro Quitorio, spokesman for the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.

“While schools may be entrusted with the formal education of children, the total responsibility still remains with parents. The primary responsibility for raising children lies with parents and guardians, including how to educate them on sex.’’

But Cabral said the government must take the initiative and teach sex education—instead of doing nothing about the ballooning number of teenage and unwanted pregnancies.

“The Department of Education knows what is the appropriate type of sex education that they will teach our children,” Cabral said. “Should we wait for teenagers to get pregnant before we teach them sex education that is appropriate for them?”

Cabral said age-appropriate topics should be taught as early as kindergarten.

President Gloria Arroyo, who backed Cabral’s campaign to distribute condoms as a way to combat the spread of AIDS, is more cautious this time, ordering the Health and Education Departments to “consult and coordinate with” the bishops before incorporating sex education in schools this year.

“The advisory is for them to consult and coordinate with the CBCP. The religious have forwarded some reservations and these have to be addressed,” Executive Secretary Leandro Mendoza said.

“We have always respected the opinions and advocacies of the religious, and it is best for the Department of Education and the Department of Health to do consultations before any policy is made on this particular issue.”

Education Secretary Mona Valisno said sex education will be taught as part of subjects such as science, wellness, values education, reading comprehension—and even math.

Kenneth Tirado, head of the department’s communications unit, said the topic could be incorporated into math lessons by way of problem-solving and computation of figures using facts and figures related to sex education, such as the awareness level of the youth about sexually transmitted diseases and the number of HIV-AIDS cases in the country.

Quitorio said the Church opposed all these.

“Students should be taught the proper sex education, not sexuality that is focused on the physical aspect of sexuality but as a sacred gift from God,” he said.

On Wednesday, Cabral got support on another front when the Medicines Transparency Alliance Council-Philippines supported a Health Department order that disclaimers be printed on the packaging of food and dietary supplements.

The disclaimer reminds consumers that the dietary supplements are not medicines and should not be used to cure any kind of illness.

The alliance also described as “unwarranted, inappropriate and ill-advised” a suit filed by the Chamber of Herbal Industries of the Philippines against Cabral.

In an interview with the Manila Standard, Cabral refused to be drawn into another health-related issue: a campaign by some anti-smoking groups to get president-elect Benigno Aquino III’s to drop his three-packs-a-day habit.

“It’s his prerogative, [as long as] he will not endanger anybody’s health from his smoking,” she said. –Joyce Pangco Pañares with Macon Ramos-Araneta and Vito Barcelo, Manila Standard Today