Teachers urge Marcos to certify teen pregnancy bill as urgent

By Francis Allan L. Angelo

MANILA — A group of teachers and parents has asked President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to adopt adolescent pregnancy as an urgent national concern and to certify measures addressing it as priority legislation in his State of the Nation Address.

Parents and Teachers for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention, or PTApp, said in a statement that as many as 6.8 percent of Filipino girls aged 15 to 19 have already begun childbearing, alongside what the group called an alarming increase in children aged 10 to 14 bearing children.

The group specifically urged Marcos Jr. to certify as urgent the proposed Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Act, which it said was first filed in 2017.

PTApp said the measure would strengthen prevention efforts by improving coordination among schools, parents, communities, health providers, and government agencies, while expanding age-appropriate education and support for young people.

Marcos Jr. delivers his fifth State of the Nation Address on July 27 at the Batasang Pambansa Complex. It is his penultimate address before the end of his term.

Certification as urgent is not a symbolic gesture. Under Article VI, Section 26 of the 1987 Constitution, it allows Congress to pass a bill on second and third reading on the same day, waiving the requirement that printed copies be distributed three days in advance.

“Every teacher knows this reality: when a young person enters adolescence, they are already receiving messages about relationships, bodies, and sex, through social media, classmates, online content, and people around them. In my experience as an educator for 30 years, there is not a year that goes by that there is no child getting pregnant,” said Principal Maria Zaida Padullo, PTApp spokesperson.

“The question is not whether young people are learning. The question is whether they are learning from trusted adults and safe spaces. And more often than not, we know from experience that the obvious answer is a resounding no,” added Padullo, who heads a public high school in Quezon City.

The call comes amid continued public discussion of the proposed Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Bill and growing concern over child and adolescent pregnancies.

PTApp said that once enacted, the law would help ensure that young Filipinos receive age-appropriate information, access to support services, and better protection before a pregnancy happens.

Educators in the group stressed that the bill would equip them to give children the information needed to make sound decisions later in life.

A version of the measure, House Bill 8910, cleared the House of Representatives on third and final reading on a 232-0 vote, establishing an Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Inter-Agency Council and mandating community-based, age-appropriate comprehensive adolescent sexuality education. The measure did not clear the Senate before the 19th Congress adjourned.

Supporters note that pregnancies among girls aged 10 to 14 are themselves indicators of sexual abuse, since Republic Act 11648 raised the age for determining statutory rape. The proposed law would sit alongside the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012 and the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act.

The group said young people are learning about sex elsewhere.

Citing the Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Study 5, PTApp said only one in eight Filipino youth reported ever discussing “sex” at home, while 19 percent said their top material source of information about puberty was social media.

“This data is alarming. This means that Filipino adolescents are at risk of getting wrong information and fake news about sex, which leads to unwanted pregnancies, the spread of sexually transmitted infections, and sexual harassment and abuse. Teachers like me are seeing this reality every day,” Padullo said.

“Families today are raising children in a world where they are constantly inundated by information that is unfiltered and often inaccurate. Schools should support parents by helping young people build the knowledge and decision-making skills to protect themselves.”

The same study found that girls mostly learn about puberty from their mothers, at 70 percent, but that only 39 percent turn to their mother with questions about sex while 22 percent turn to friends.

The pattern among boys is more pronounced, with almost half asking friends about sex, 12 percent asking their father, and 11 percent asking their mother.

The concern is very real in Western Visayas. Iloilo City recorded 297 minors who experienced early pregnancy in 2024, according to city Civil Registry Office data, with 10 of the mothers aged 14 and below, including a 12-year-old who gave birth in January that year.

“We cannot keep responding only after a child becomes pregnant. Protection starts before crisis. Young Filipinos deserve adults who are willing to guide them before misinformation, pressure, or exploitation does,” the group said.