Project ‘Dalisay,’ Sereno hit for irresponsible arrogance
Child rights and health advocates on Friday slammed as “irresponsible” and “arrogant” former Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno and the so-called Project “Dalisay” for a supposed online smear campaign against moves to curb teen pregnancies in the country.
“We are disappointed and also offended by the arrogance of Project Dalisay. They speak as if they have the monopoly of knowledge on how to protect children,” Maria Aurora Quilala, deputy executive director of the Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development, told a news briefing.
Project Dalisay is an initiative of the National Coalition for the Family and the Constitution that includes Sereno.
Quilala denounced the “disinformation being spread” by the group as “very irresponsible,” noting that it was only December that the group came up with materials out of nowhere with no consultations made with groups supporting Senate Bill No. 1979, or the Prevention of Adolescent Pregnancy Act.
She urged opposing groups like Project Dalisay to discuss and raise their issues with lawmakers to be able to introduce more amendments, and not through social media platforms.
“It will be on you if next year the number of adolescent pregnancies increase even more because the Senate decided not to act on [the bill] because of the fear-mongering you did,” Quilala said.
For Quilala, Project Dalisay undid years of work and lobbying various advocates had put in for the proposed measure to gain traction in Congress.
She said another consequence resulting from the “disinformation” on the proposed measure was the unexpected call for inquiry in the House of Representatives regarding its version, House Bill No. 8910, which was already approved by the lower chamber in September 2023.
Sereno can be seen in a nine-minute video that criticized the bill for supposedly inappropriate provisions that were not even included in SB 1979.
In pushing for the bill’s passage, Doctors Juan Antonio Perez III and Angela Aguilar warned about the alarming rise of pregnancy among girls below 16 years old and the health risks that come with it.
Perez noted for every 10,000 adolescent girls aged 9 to 14, around 29 of them gave birth in 2023, as shown by the latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority.
There has also been a sustained increase in pregnancies among girls 10 to 14 years old since 2020, when a total of 2,113 cases were recorded, until 2023, when it further climbed to a total of 3,343.
