Senator Win Gatchalian recommended on Wednesday the total scrapping of the controversial Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) to the Department of Education’s curriculum.

In a virtual press briefing, Gatchalian said Reproductive Health Education (RHE) should instead be taught to adolescents as mandated by the Republic Act 10354, also known as the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health (RPRH) Act.

“My recommendation is to scrap CSE and go back to the original intention of the RH law, which is Reproductive Health education. After all, the legal basis for their CSE comes from the RH law, as stated by DepEd,” he said.

The chair of the Senate Committee on Basic Education noted that the DepEd’s Department Order (DO) No. 31, which focuses on the implementation of the country’s first CSE, “morphed” from the original intention of the RPRH Act.

“So let’s return to the original intention. What happened is that it morphed, from sex education to sexuality education, which was not the intention of the RH Law,” he said.

DepEd’s DO 31 is currently being implemented on a pilot basis in Regions I, VII and XI.

According to Gatchalian, he conveyed his recommendation personally to former senator and now Education Secretary Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara, in the presence of Senator Pia Cayetano.

He noted that Cayetano, who authored and sponsored the RPRH Act in the Senate, said that the original intent of the law was to “teach reproductive health education and not sexuality education.”

“He (Angara) also has suggestions on how to move forward, but I don’t want to preempt him because they are still evaluating it. I don’t want him to be put in a difficult position,” Gatchalian said.

The RPRH Law mandates the inclusion of CSE in schools but underscores the need for it to be delivered in a manner that is consistent with the religious convictions of the learners’ families.

During Tuesday’s Senate panel hearing on Basic Education, which focused on the rising number of adolescent pregnancies and HIV cases among the youth, the Department of Education (DepEd) clarified concerns regarding its Department Order 31 (DO 31).

According to DepEd Assistant Secretary for Curriculum and Teaching Janir Datukan, teaching children aged four years old and below how to pleasure themselves sexually is not part of their curriculum.

“Mr. Chair, no. There’s nowhere in our curriculum that teaches these things to learners between zero to four. We don’t cover that as well because our learners start at five years old in DepEd,” Datukan told the panel.

“As we said, all of the competencies that we have under this Comprehensive Sexuality Education are mapped with existing learning competencies already there in the curriculum,” he added.

Datukan clarified after he was asked by Senator Risa Hontiveros whether the specific age group is being taught how to masturbate under the DO 31.

Several groups, particularly Project Dalisay, claimed that DepEd’s DO 31 is teaching 0 to four-year-olds how to masturbate as the curriculum is based on the UNESCO guidelines.

Hontiveros, who is pushing for an Anti-Adolescent Pregnancy bill at the Senate, also asked the DepEd whether Republic Act 10354, also known as the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act, disregards parental authority.

Datukan clarified such a claim is “far from the truth,” stressing that the department’s CSE is merely a “supplementary.”

“It is not meant to replace or override the parental authority of parents over their children. It is only complementary, just support,” he said.