A leader of the House of Representatives has raised concern over the increasing number of suicides among Filipinos aged 13 to 25.
At the same time, San Jose del Monte City Rep. Rida Robes, chairperson of the House Committee on People Participation, called for a stronger health and educational program aimed at battling the malady, which she said had victimized 2,000 from 2000 to 2012.
In a privilege speech, Robes said depression was the common cause of suicide that had not been adequately addressed.
“I am alarmed that depression gets to become a ‘common cold’ in this country, affecting some 3,300,000 Filpinos,” Robes said in her speech late Tuesday.
“The Philippines has the highest number of depressed people in Southeast Asia and a high number of these cases are observed among our young people, including career-bound young professionals,” she added.
Citing a 2017 World Health Organization report, Robes said suicide rates in the country was “about six for males and two for females per 100,000.
Majority of individuals who committed suicide are youths aged 15 to 29 years old, she added.
She lamented the fact that educational system of the country have focused efforts at “developing a man’s body and intellect by capacitating himself with knowledge and technical competence” but not on preparing a person to the “requirements of spirituality and immortality.”
“Thus, we have graduates with big minds but Lilliputian hearts. Education is not programmed to develop the will and emotions but is heavily tilted towards the development of the mind,” she noted.
She added an “alarming number of young Filipinos who have taken their own lives because of the feeling of hopelessness and meaningless existence.”
Depressed youths are denied quality time by their parents due to busy schedule while school life “has become source of high level stress.”
“Our senior high school students speak of difficulty coping with increased pressure and stress with the lumping of too many difficult subjects, too many academic requirements, lack of guidance and counseling, heightened competition and increasing level of expectation from teachers and parents,” said Robes, member of the House Committee on Basic Education.
In her speech, Robes urged the Commission on Higher Education and the Department of Education to lead in the formulation and implementation of an ethical orientation program “anchored on the process of moral choice with emphasis on the teaching of moral and philosophical values necessary for human survival.”
