By Jefferson Antiporda/Manila Times
Proposed legislation about divorce and legalisation of same sex marriage, popularity of Internet, television shows and films about infidelity are among the things that weaken the Filipino families, making it an endangered species.
Lina Laigo, former secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said aggression and hostility are very common in today’s Filipino families, which usually end up in breakups especially among young couples.
“There are many challenges that impinge on the Filipino family that has made marriage and even physical relationship between couples meaningless. Too much materialism has caused family values to go down,” Liago said during the weekly Bulong Pulungan news forum held at Sofitel yesterday.
Weak family values is also the reason why we always hear news about youngsters involved in criminal offences like rape, drug abuse as well as incidents of suicide brought by depression. “This has something to do with how we (parents) behave in our own family,” she added. Leopoldo Moselina, former director of the Manila Child unit of the Unicef, meanwhile said the lack of sense of responsibility on the part of the father is one of the major reasons for the declining family values.
He explained that children look at their parents especially their father as their role model, being the head of the family. However there are some cases where it is the father who is the weakest pillar of the family.
Fathers, he said, should take up responsibility in their homes. It is their God-given role and not leave everything to the mother. He noted that if the head of the family is weak, chances are the children will have a difficult time growing up and will also follow the same path their father took.
But Laigo said the solution for the problem need not come from the government, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and religious organisations, because the key lies entirely with the family.
