My thoughts on CSE

Sometime this month, my mom came up to me saying she heard about this thing we should oppose. "CSE!" she said. I asked her what CSE meant and she just said she heard that it's very dangerous and that they're moving on it quickly. My next question was, "Who's 'they'?" My mom didn't know. So I asked my trusty sidekick, ChatGPT and Google but all they could come up with was "Computer Science Education" or "Civil Service Exam". So our conversation ended there. I assumed I could find something about it in the newspaper - there was none.

It was just last week that I chanced upon an ANC video on Youtube which showed former Chief Justice Sereno. The title had "CSE" in it so I assumed that was it and decided to watch the video. In it, CJ Sereno was describing a bill which would promote Comprehensive Sexuality Education and the harms it posed to the children and to families. The video was an hour long but CJ Sereno's part was just in the first few minutes. What followed was a parallel press conference which featured Riza Hontiveros debunking the claims made by Sereno's group. Both parties were referencing a video put up by a certain Project Dalisay which I decided to watch as well.

Now, my first approach to most political issues is one where I default to the other party having good intentions. That means when I approached this topic, I decided to give both former CJ Sereno and Riza Hontiveros the assumption of good will (i.e., both of them genuinely believe they are advancing the something good). I continue to hold this presumption until a point where I see that the person isn't showing good will anymore.

In this particular case, I've seen that Riza Hontiveros has NOT shown good will in this exchange. CJ Sereno has referenced numerous CSE curriculums abroad and DepEd orders that show that kids are to be exposed to things like masturbation, pornography, contraception, etc. What's tricky with CJ Sereno's case is that the bill in question and the DepEd orders do not mention these topics at all. This is a fact that she recognizes and states in her claims. She does, however, mention that the Senate Bill and the DepEd order reference a UN document which indeed does mention these topics. Riza Hontiveros counters this by repeating that the Senate Bill does not mention these topic at all. This fact has already been acknowledged by Project Dalisay and CJ Sereno so simply repeating the claim shows, in my opinion, a lack of interest to engage and thus a lack of good will on her part.

I did look into the CSE curriculum of UNESCO and I find it to be pushing things that would indeed go against my Catholic faith. Not only that, it promotes things that are contrary to reality! What bothers me as well is the lack of the option to opt out though I believe this was addressed in a replacement bill. Even with the option to opt out, the state should not be able to replace the parents in the duty to educate their children on such delicate matters. In fact, CJ Sereno says as much in her opposition to this bill.

I find it comforting that this bill never made it out of the senate but it does mean we need to really look at all the bills that might come out of congress to see which ones have poisonous elements lurking in their pages.