ASIDE from peers, Health Secretary Paulyn Ubial disclosed Thursday that they are actually looking at the possibility of tapping the Parents – Teachers Associations (PTAs) in their bid to slow down the spread of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) among the youth.
In an interview, Ubial said they are looking into all possible venues to push their comprehensive sexuality education program to combat HIV.
“We will still explore means and ways to make a comprehensive sexuality education, individual counseling and condom access for sexually-active youth. It can be even through the PTA,” said Ubial.
Earlier, the Department of Health (DOH) had already said they are already looking at the possibility of tapping “peers” as an alternative to the school-based condom distribution program.
Ubial's latest statement comes after the Teachers' Dignity Coalition (TDC) announced that they are against the act of distributing condoms to students.
According to the TDC, such a program is disturbing and could deliver a wrong message to the young students.
But according to Ubial, they will not be forcing anybody, including teachers, to distribute condoms to their own students.
She said they will respect the positions of teachers even if it would be adversarial to the DOH campaign to stop the surge in HIV cases among the youth.
"As I repeatedly said, wala pong pilitan. If teachers don’t want to do it, then they are given the right to refuse,” said the official. (HDT/VoxPop Philippines)