Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista

QUEZON City Mayor Herbert Bautista on Friday ordered the city’s 46 public high schools to teach sex education starting June 2017. “Included in the provision of reproductive health education is the reproductive health supplies in schools, such as condoms,” a city government official statement read.Despite opposition of the Catholic Church, the city government vowed to still promote the use of condom to combat human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). During a recent local health board meeting, Bautista approved the mandatory inclusion of reproductive health in the curriculum of all public secondary schools. He also approved the recommendation of city health officer Verdades Linga to include in the curriculum demonstrations on the proper use of condom to high school students as well as the other contraceptives, an “important” component of HIV, AIDS and STD prevention.Noting she also saw the need to promote condom use even in the workplace, Linga said “what the health board will be doing is strengthen condom use in Quezon City and erase the stigma that has always been associated with it.” In its intensive effort from the city health officials to manage and control the spread of HIV, AIDS and STDs, the city government increased its investments for such program from less than P5 million per year prior to 2012 to P24 million in 2014. “Apart from increased investments for its HIV programs, the city government under the Bautista administration has also taken steps to address broader structural barriers to effective HIV responses, including the passage of local laws against discrimination on grounds of HIV status, sexual orientation and gender identity,” the local government said. Based on the Philippine AIDS registry, 613 HIV cases were reported in Quezon City from January to October 2015.