Parents need help

A very disturbing development in the province is the increasing incidence of rape and molestation of children not by adults alone but by minors themselves.

As most studies show, the influence of the use of illegal drugs and easy access to pornography on the internet have been identified as major factors for the rise in the crimes against children (and women).

The call for action is now.  While there is a call for intensifying efforts at creating awareness towards the effects of illegal drugs, stricter rules governing access to internet by minors in internet cafes, rape as a crime, and towards fertility and teenage pregnancy in schools, there is hardly any mention about parents needing guidance on how to deal with the issues with their children. Most parents are clueless about how to break communication barriers between them and their children and be able to openly discuss and create awareness about values towards sexuality at home.

As guidance counselors tell us, parents have difficulty discussing sexuality with their children, and children would not dare discuss their concerns and questions about their sexuality at the risk of being reprimanded and threatened.

Parents need help to help protect their children. If parents continue to remain in denial about their capacities to reach out to their children, misadventures like teenage pregnancy, falling as rape victims, becoming rapists will hit more families, if not their own.

Golden opportunity

ANGERED by the death of three government soldiers allegedly at the hands of communist guerillas, President Duterte ordered the stoppage of the peace talks set to resume on Feb. 15 in Rome.  But if the report is true that the victims absorbed a total of 76 bullet-inflicted wounds, it is almost next to impossible for the NPA to have done that. Rebels do not have that much ammunition to waste.  Traditionally not well-equipped, the NPA treats every bullet as precious as gold.  But conjectures aside, ending the peace process now would be a shame as the scheduled third round of talks would delve on the social and economic reforms, which are deemed the pivotal factors to achieving lasting peace and long-term poverty eradication.  The communist insurgency has been with us for nearly half a century.  The President has now the golden opportunity to end it.  Can he afford to just toss it out the window—with just one of his patented outbursts? Silly.

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