THE Department of Health (DoH) and the Department of Education (DepEd) have come to an agreement on the sensitive issue of condoms.
Secretary of Health Paulyn Ubial said Wednesday that the DoH respects the decision of the DepEd to carry out a reproductive health education program of instruction appropriate to the various age levels in the nation’s public schools – without distributing condoms as originally proposed.
The DoH had wanted to distribute the protective devices as part of a campaign to arrest the spread of HIV-AIDS – Human Immunodeficiency Virus–Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome – following a sharp rise in HIV cases in the country. From 1984 to 2016, it said, 38,114 HIV cases were recorded in the country, with 10,279 of the cases involving young people aged 15 to 24 years old. It thought of doing the distribution through the nation’s public schools.
Secretary of Education Leonor Briones, however, said the DepEd will not be involved in condom distribution. What it can do, she said, is to strengthen the basic education curriculum, following UNESCO guidelines on reproductive health. It will focus on HIV information and education. No contraceptives of any kind will be distributed in school premises. The DoH has health centers which are already doing this, she said.
The condom-distribution plan through schools had been met with considerable opposition when it was first proposed.
Instead of teaching school children safe sex, Buhay party-list Rep. Lito Atienza said, the schools should teach the values of marriage and family Quezon City Rep. Angelina Tan said it would not be proper to distribute condoms to high school students before teaching them proper values and sex education.
Now that the DoH has given up its original distribution plan, Secretary Ubial said it will work with other partners to ensure information is linked to service provision, which will not be limited to condom access. “We can stop HIV transmission through a collective societal effort, focusing on widespread HIV awareness among the youth and vulnerable populations,” she said. The DoH will establish test and treatment centers all over the country. It will seek to end stigmatization and discrimination in work places.
This sounds like a more realistic and workable solution to the problem of rising HIV-AID cases in the country. The DepEd will carry out a program of information suitable to various age levels in the nation’s public schools. The DoH will set up test and service centers and work with other partners, such as business enterprises and civic organizations. In such a program, condoms may help but they surely are not the center of the anti-HIV-AIDS program, as the original plan seemed to be.
