DEPARTMENT of Education Davao Region spokesperson Jenielito Atillo bucked the plan of the Department of Health to provide condoms to high school students to curb the spread of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV-Aids).
Atillo said he finds nothing wrong for schools to teach about reproductive health and other topics related to sex, but distributing condoms is another thing.
True, the idea of condoms being distributed to high school students may sound preposterous, except that we have been mingling with the urban poor youths for so long and dealing with the issues concerning the young in inner city areas, and we know for a fact that sexual relationships are not new to them.
We also know for a fact that the organizations dealing with prostituted children are noticing that more and more teens and even pre-teens are becoming prostituted. To be prostituted at 17 years old these days is no longer shocking as children as young as 12 are already being introduced into the trade.
This is a whole different generation out there, corrupted by the literature and stories whether on television or movies and songs we have been feeding them throughout all these years.
While just a decade ago, we would cringe at rap stars rapping the F-word, now, just about every rap has the F-word in it, and children are lapping it up.
While two decades ago, we were aghast by otso-otso and later twerking, now, twerking is in almost every MTV video, include open mouth kissing to that by the artists in the worst imaginable state of dishabille without frontal nudity.
And we're still shocked that condoms will be made available in school?
The children are doing it, we see that in the number of teenage mothers and statistics shown by the Youth Adult Fertility and Sexuality Surveys (YAFS).
The YAFS 4 done in 2013 showed that one in three Filipino youths aged 15 to 24 have engaged in premarital sex and that 78 percent of the 1st premarital sex was unprotected against the risk of pregnancy and/or STI.
The survey, however, focused only on the Young Adults thus we do not even have a picture of those below 15, given that even Talikala Inc, the non-government organization working with the prostituted since the 1980s have already expressed alarm that pre-teens and young teens are already involved in the trade.
This is a whole different generation we are addressing, a generation where parental guidance can easily be thwarted because of the portability of the medium by which they get access to materials with explicit sexual content.
Worse, this is a generation where millions are reared by surrogate parents, many of whom see their role as just providing food and ensuring a comfortable shelter for the children left in their care and nothing more, as parents work abroad to ensure a better life for the family.
It's best to teach them the risks and responsibilities involved.
Distribution may indeed sound incredulous, but we still believe that along with the need to teach the young about their sexuality and the urges they need to understand, they should also be allowed to have immediate access should the urge be too much.
In this age of information, the stimulation is everywhere, something will definitely give in, the most vulnerable being the young and their raging hormones.