11:23 PM
This monday on I-Witness...
From: Howie Severino
Papa, Papa, Pano ako ginawa?
Most parents go through an awkward stage when they need to try to
explain sexuality to their children. Howie Severino is entering that
stage now with his curious six-year-old son Alon, who asks when and
how his sibling(s) will come.
That innocent query begins Howie's search for a way to answer a
child's vital questions. The search takes him to a bishop, a teacher,
a youth advocate, a lawyer, a health worker, and other young kids --
but also to discoveries about the state of sexuality education in the
Philippines. He brings Alon to a progressive school where gender
issues are openly discussed with small children, and to a kids
workshop in Malabon on gender and sexuality where even pre-teens are
introduced to ways of protecting themselves against sexually
transmitted disease.
It is the same place in Malabon where Howie returns to learn about
widespread youth problems that advocates say are borne out of
inadequate information about sexuality: irresponsible sexual
practices, the alarming spread of gonorrhea, teen pregnancies. Howie
meets earnest youth advocate Kiko who overcomes taboos to talk to
teens about knowing their bodies, the proper use of condoms, and
identifying disgusting diseases contracted through sex.
Debate is raging now in Congress over the future of sex education. But
the real battleground may be in places like Malabon where the stakes
are life and death, and the future of its young residents.
