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THERE is a barangay in my hometown where it is said that more than
half of the young girls in their teens, most of them enrolled in
secondary schools, have become pregnant. I couldn’t believe this,
and refused to accept the information even just with an iota of
truth, but children of my kin living in the barangay, while not
affirming the percentage, say that most of their teen friends and
neighbors have become pregnant while in high school.
Thus, they had to quit school and unable to
graduate. I meet some of them who sought our help to get a job. When
I commented about how thoughtless they were to go into such a
compromising circumstance, they just smiled and kept silent. The sad
thing about it is that, unable to support their newborn for lack of
qualification to get better-earning work than just being househelps,
they become an added economic burden of their parents.
Now comes the news that a bill has been filed in
the Senate to extend help to single parents, in the form of
maternity leave, “to unmarried pregnant women in the government
sector.” It was pointed out that a law was passed in June 1941, a
few months before World War II (Commonwealth Act 647) providing for
just such assistance but only to “married women permanently or
temporarily” in the public service.
In the face of contemporary realities, there is
need for the law to expand its benefits to include women, especially
the very young ones, for the sake of their children who are in
danger of growing up without economic support, and would add to the
social problems of their community when they are grown. Sen. Bong
Revilla’s Senate Bill 1864 should include single mothers.
Revilla pointed out that CA 647 “is already an
outdated law. Its provision does not cope with the modern times
whereby being a single mother is [already] a status accepted by
society.” It is this social acceptance, which makes it imperative
for government to extend assistance to illegitimate children. CA 647
was a form of moral punishment to women for their indiscretion.
There was, indeed, a time in our distant past
when Filipinas were asked to be like Maria Clara in Jose Rizal’s
time. But the high standard of morality among our women has long
been eroded by the onslaught of modern notions that moral
conservatism is a cultural hindrance to progress. Time was when
women who applied facial cosmetics, reddened their lips, curled
their hair or wore men’s pants, were considered morally loose.
Today, with television programs that encourage
our young almost to bare themselves in public, chastity no longer
count as a virtue. Indeed, our young girls do not think twice
anymore to walk around showing their belly buttons below an
abbreviated shirt, and above an overly short skirt that reveals the
upper seams of their underwear. Truth to tell, I can imagine my late
grandmother rising in umbrage to see a granddaughter dressed that
way.
While the Senate bill recognizes the unfairness
of the obvious discrimination the present government policy holds
toward “unmarried pregnant women in government service” and
hence should also “enjoy maternity leave benefits” that their
married peers in the civil service do or their counterpart in the
private sector. Revilla should expand his social horizon to include
the plight of our increasing number of unwed mothers.
Lest this advocacy be taken as a move that would
encourage further breakdown of our moral standards, we should weigh
the potential negative effect of the law against the possible
positive results it would have on society’s increasing number of
illegitimate children who would have no future to speak of unless
they are schooled.
On the other hand, they would be a potential
social burden.
Indeed, police records show most crimes in our
cities and towns have been perpetrated by persons who come from
broken families, youth who have fallen into drug addiction, women
who grew up in large families that cannot afford to send the
siblings to school, or are unable to feed them satisfactorily. Most
often, girls are driven to beg in the streets and become social
problems, while the boys grow up as pushers or pickpockets.
It is time, that our national leaders take
cognizance of the problem that is now very vivid in our urban
squatter areas and poor rural communities.
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