SHOULD IT BE LOVE OR SEX by Jun Concepcion

It is Valentine's Day on saturday and let's talk of love and sex, "at iba pa." (etc.). The writings have been on the wall for quite sometime but society has just ignored it. Now, it appears to be the signs of the times. Good or bad, let us hope for the best.

1.    LOVE OF SEX. According to a Demographic Research and Development Foundation Inc (DRDF) and University of the Philippines Population Institute survey of nearly 10,879 respondents 15-24 years old. YAFS3 covered a larger sample of nearly 20,000 Filipinos in the ages 15-27 conducted sometime in 2002,  today’s Filipino youth is “getting hotter and going wilder”. Some 4.9 million young adults, ages ranging from 15 to 24, have lost their virginity before marriage, 3.8 million of them became sexually active, 1.6 million did it with multiple partners and 400,000 did it with someone of the same sex.
• At least 12 percent of the 4.9 million were aged 15 to 19.
• There are 16.5 million Filipinos in the 15-24 age range.
• Of the 400,000, 87 percent are men having sex with men. 
           I was curious if “love” has got to do with the liberated sex movement today and I asked some young girls from the ages 20 to 23 about their boy friends, length of courtship and intimacy. I was surprised at how open-minded they were in their responses. The majority did have sexual intercourse with their boy friends, others had more than two sexual intercourse with two or more different boyfriends within their single lives. Almost all of those who had sexual intercourse said they did it “with love and for love.” When I confronted them on the length of the courtship, I was surprised that my 1 year to 5 year period was an “ancient process.” Today, one said, “you meet a boy and immediately, you are M.U. (mutual understanding); then, he becomes your bf no later than one month, when you can have SI (sexual intercourse).”
                This confirms the observation of Dr. Corazon Raymundo, project overall coordinator of YAFS3 who described the above reserach  findings as “shocking and revealing.”  “It appears that Filipino adolescents are making the transition into adulthood in a fast changing world where usual norms and expectations do not hold true anymore,” Raymundo said.
“Sexual risk-taking among Filipino youth is becoming more pervasive,” said Marquez and Galban.
In 1994, they said, 23 percent of young people have engaged in risky sex (with single and multiple partners).
The proportion rose to 27.1 percent by 2002 denoting a 3.6 percent increase during the eight-year period.
The upward trend was also noted in young people engaging in premarital sex.
From 17.8 percent in 1994, 23.4 percent of the young in 2002 have engaged in premarital sex.
According to Raymundo, young adults from the National Capital Region and Eastern Visayas posted the highest percentage of premarital sex experience at 35 percent.
Lower prevalence of premarital sexual activity on the other hand, she said, was found among young people from the regions of Western Mindanao (19%), Cagayan Valley (16%) and Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (12%).