Senate urged to pass RH services for minors amid reports of sex as monthsary gift

An official of the Commission on Population and Development on Tuesday urged the Senate to pass the Adolescent Prevention Bill to mitigate the rise of pregnancies among minors, some of whom have been found to give sex as a gift during "monthsaries."

Mylin Mirasol Quiray, CPD acting division chief of the Knowledge Management and Communications Division, also cited a study which indicated some fathers as young as 10 years old.

"Doon sa mga qualitative data ng aming pag-aaral, nakita namin na ginagawa siyang monthsary gift ang sex," Quiray said.

"Nagiging monthsary gift siya kasi ‘ah wala akong gift sa aking boyfriend so sa monthsary namin, ito yung gift ko sa kanya," she added.

(In the qualitative data of our study, we saw that sex is being used as a monthsary gift. I have nothing to give my boyfriend on our monthsary. I'd just give him sex.)

Monthsary refers to the date when couples mark the number of months they had been dating. 

Senate Bill 372, which has been reported out of the committee, seeks to provide adolescents with access to modern family-planning devices.

Its House version, House Bill 8910, was passed unanimously in the plenary on Sept. 5, 2023.

The House bill seeks to allow adolescents aged 15 to 17 to access reproductive health services, including birth control, with no need for parental consent.

Citing data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), Quiray said the number of young fathers jumped from at least 5,000 in 2018 to at least 8,000 in 2019.

She said that there was a minimal dip in 2021, recording at least 7,000 young fathers.

Quiray also said they recorded young fathers ages from 10 to 17 years old.

“It’s a rare event naman yung 10 years old dito. I cannot say for sure yung single year,” Quiray said.

One of the factors contributing to the number of young fathers is the youth’s exposure to pornographic materials.

Citing the 2021 Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality study, Quiray said 18% percent of adolescents are exposed to pornographic materials.

“Gusto natin ang parents natin ay maging handa na sila mismo hindi sila maimi na pag-usapan ang sex at sexuality sa kanilang mga anak dahil ang impormasyon na ito ay dapat manggalingsa bahay,” Quiray said.

(We want parents to be prepared to educate their children about sex and sexuality because this kind of information must come from them.)

Quiray also said parents should teach their children protective behavior, calling body parts as they are, and the ability to say no. —NB, GMA Integrated News