ILOILO City — A growing number of childbirths among girls as young as 11 — and even younger — has prompted the Commission on Population and Development (CPD) Region 6 to sound the alarm on what it calls an escalating child protection, public health, and economic problem in Western Visayas.
Based on 2023 data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the region logged 7,774 registered live births from adolescent mothers aged 10 to 19.
Startlingly, one recorded birth involved an 11-year-old girl from Iloilo province, and the CPD confirmed receiving reports of an even more bizarre case — a nine-year-old girl who died from childbirth complications. This incident, however, was not reflected in official statistics.
“We have a case in 2023. Nabuntis siya at 11 years old. She must have had sexual encounters earlier than that, maybe when she was 10. We can only speculate kon sin-o ang iya partner. She might be a victim of incest or rape, or peer pressure,” said CPD-6 regional director Harold Alfred Marshall.
Marshall emphasized the economic cost of adolescent pregnancy, citing United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates that place the annual burden at ₱33 billion — a strain on public funds that could otherwise go to schools, hospitals, and infrastructure.
“That’s why kami sa Commission on Population and Development, we advocated (during the term of then President Rodrigo Duterte) Executive Order 141 declaring adolescent pregnancy a national emergency,” Marshall said.
He also pushed for stronger community-based monitoring, mandatory reporting of suspected child abuse cases, and the rollout of AHlam Na! 3.0, a mobile app aimed at providing accessible sexual and reproductive health education to the youth.
CPD-6’s childbirth to age breakdown in 2023 showed a disturbing trend:
* 1 childbirth from an 11-year-old
* 6 from 12-year-olds
* 25 from 13-year-olds
* 117 from 14-year-olds
* 397 from 15-year-olds
* 864 from 16-year-olds
* 1,434 from 17-year-olds
* 2,131 from 18-year-olds
* 2,799 from 19-year-olds
According to CPD-6, the most alarming today is not just the frequency of adolescent pregnancies, but the sharp rise in cases among children aged 14 and below.
Their bodies are not ready, their minds are not ready — and many of these pregnancies are likely rooted in trauma, it stressed.
Negros Occidental registered the highest number of adolescent births at 2,699, followed by Iloilo (2,228), Capiz (930), Aklan (671), and Antique (461). Even highly urbanized areas like Iloilo City and Bacolod City reported 355 and 200 cases, respectively.
The CPD-6 warned that many pregnancies among pre-teens remain unreported, especially in remote upland towns where access to reproductive health services is limited and taboos surrounding sexual violence and abuse likely persist.
“Damo nga issues ukon paghangkat ang gina-atubang subong sang mga kabataan, especially adolescent pregnancy. While Region 6 is not the highest in the Philippines, may ara kita gyapon. Di gid manigar nga adolescent pregnancy is everywhere,” lamented Marshall./PN
