The comprehensive sexual education (CSE) could also address the issue of "grooming" and "predatory sexual behaviors," according to children's rights advocates.

In a press briefing on Friday, children's rights advocates voiced their support for Senate Bill No. 1979 or the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Bill, a legislation that aims to address the alarming rise of teenage pregnancies in the country.

This after the bill, which includes CSE, caused uproar online recently after the National Coalition for the Family and the Constitution claimed it would "hypersexualize" children."

However, for Dr. Angela Aguilar of the Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology Society of the Philippines, CSE would serve as an important tool for children, especially girls, against predatory actions.

"If you interview adolescents who became pregnant, some of them don't know why they got pregnant. They were not aware that there has been a penetration, they were not aware that the acts were done to them were acts that could lead to pregnancy," Aguilar said in a mix of Filipino and English.

"So grooming or predatory sexual behaviors, these perpetrators actually take advantage of the ignorance of these teens, these children. and misrepresent the acts that they are doing... So arming our children with knowledge could be a very powerful tool against these perpetrators," she added.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth Angsioco, national chairperson of the Democratic Socialist Women of the Philippines, stressed that among the topics to be discussed in CSE are children's rights.

"It's important that while it's still early, our youth already knows their rights, they already know what are the inappropriate actions that could be done to them and what they should do when they encounter these actions," Angsioco said.

"Grooming is also a pressing problem, that's why our youth needs to learn how to make a decision," she added.

Advocates from Child Rights Network, Philippine Legislators' Committee on Population and Development Population Foundation Inc., Forum on Family Planning and Development, Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology Society of the Philippines, Democratic Socialist Women of the Philippines, and Partido Manggagawa also argued that CSE is "age-appropriate" and "culturally-sensitive."

They also lauded the Department of Education for backing the bill.