Photo credit: Senate PH

Teen pregnancy and HIV rates are making waves in the Senate, and Sen. Win Gatchalian isn’t staying quiet about it. Leading a Senate Committee on Basic Education hearing this January 28, 2025, Gatchalian sounded the alarm on the critical need to step up the government's Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) program.

Here’s the deal: back in 2013, the country recorded a staggering 142,000 cases of teenage pregnancies. While those numbers have been dropping, Gatchalian isn’t celebrating yet. Instead, he’s turning his focus to another growing concern—HIV cases among adolescents, which have jumped from 629 in 2019 to 1,059 in 2024.

For Gatchalian, the numbers point to a deeper problem. He called out what he described as a gap between how the Department of Education is rolling out CSE and the mandates of the Reproductive Health (RH) Law, also known as Republic Act No. 10354. “We have to make sure that it is implemented uniformly in the classroom,” Gatchalian emphasized.

The senator is urging the government to address this disconnect to ensure that young Filipinos receive the proper education they need to make informed decisions about their health and futures.
With teenage pregnancies and HIV infections still pressing issues, Gatchalian’s push for a stronger CSE program highlights a vital conversation that the country can’t afford to sideline.