Malasakit at damay: A virtue- and community-based sexual ethics for Filipino teens

• Main Author: Cordero, Dalmacito A., Jr.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2017
• Subjects: Sexual ethics for teenagers > Philippines; Christian ethics > Philippines; Ethics in Religion; Religious Education
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_doctoral/594
• Institution: De La Salle University

This study examines the issue of premarital/non-marital sex among Filipino teens. Its major objective is to craft a proposed ethical content that is relevant and generated from the personal experiences of the subject. And so it uses a case study methodology that is composed of social media survey and semi-structured in-depth interview sessions involving eight participants. The data gathered was then analyzed through interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Findings show recurrent themes that serve as the causes of sexual engagement or postponement, these are: broken family problematic relationship with the parent/s high level of love/intimacy, trust, and security with the partner poverty which leads to dependence on the partner solidarity among friends/peer pressure neglected religious norms/rituals privacy/availability of space in the relationship for quite some time and influence of pornography/mass media. These themes then determine the approach, that is, the way to address PMS is to consider the socio-cultural, ethical/moral, and theological aspects. The researcher made use of combined principles of symbolic interaction, the binding power of the community, caring intimacy, and compassion. Aside from the mentioned principles, the central framework is drawn from Ferdinand D. Dagmang's concept of malasakit at damay. Thus, giving birth to the crafted sexual ethics of malaya't malikhaing malasakit at damay (3MD). The theological aspect is firmly grounded from the concept of community as drawn from the doctrine of the Trinity and Jerome Murphy- Connor's communitarian discipleship and more essentially on the show of compassion by Jesus in the gospels as expressed in the narrative of the adulterous woman and the Parable of the Good Samaritan. This can be summed up as a Christian ethics that is educational, practice oriented, and materialized in the context of a community through the promotion of virtue and acts of compassion. It is characterized by a collaborative effort of the different institutions in the community that will work hand in hand to guide teens in making a responsible sexual-ethical decision.