BAUKO, Mountain Province – Teenage pregnancy is
alarmingly on the rise in Mountain Province making authorities institute
measures to address this.
Some 110 students of Bagnen National High School
(NHS) here who attended symposium on
Adolescent Reproductive Health were informed about physical changes during
adolescence, sex, gender and human sexuality, sexual orientation, and
reproductive health concerns following recent Symposium on Adolescent Reproductive
Health Care.
Prior to this, the school requested the provincial
government through the Provincial Population Office in partnership with Nursing
Department of the Mountain Province State Polytechnic College (MPSPC) to
conduct symposium on Adolescent Reproductive Health Care for students.
Provincial Population Officer Shirley Chiyawan
presented the situation of the Filipino young people. This includes increasing youth population,
lifestyle, preference to the use of different forms of media and gadgets, engagement
in non- sexual risk behavior, experience of physical violence as an aggressor
or as victims, awareness and experience of harassment with the use of
technology, engagement in sexual activities, teenage fertility.
Chiyawan also cited increasing teenage pregnancy in
Mountain Province from year 2011 to 2013.
With this, she encouraged participants to think and consider the risks
involved on their health and their future in every decision they make.
Alfred Fomocao Jr., college instructor of the
Nursing Department in MPSPC focused his lecture on health, behavior, and
lifestyle saying physical growth and development, sexual differences,
psychosocial development, psychosexual development, behavior, and lifestyle among
adolescents were issued that needed urgent attention.
He said teenage pregnancy which Cordillera
Administrative Region has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in the country.
This was according to a 2013 Young Adult and Fertility Study conducted by the
University of the Philippines Population Institute.
Fomocao ended his lecture with his encouragement to
the participants to take care of their body as it is the only place they have
to live in.
Meanwhile, on behalf of Bagnen NHS, John Libongen
Jr. thanked the speakers for sharing the information that their students should
know to become empowered youth in their school and in the community. -- Alpine L. Killa
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