INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

Premarital sex is something which almost everyone knows about. Some proudly proclaims that they engage in while others do it secretly. However, there are still some who do it but are unaware of such term. Different people view it differently: for some it’s acceptable while for some it’s a big sin. At present, there is an increasing amount of discussions in newspaper and magazines in which various things attributed to premarital sex are discussed. It is said that the Philippines is facing this persistent challenge about premarital intercourse. Since sex is involved, this is certain to produce a number of strong reactions. Nevertheless, it is important to be careful in making such reactions. Sex is an intimate act between individuals which includes genital contact (Baumer and South, 2001). Accordingly, it was designed for married couples to enjoy, hence the famous quote: “True love waits until marriage.” The norms of Philippine society say that it is not normal or it is immoral to engage in premarital sex, but despite this, people just cannot wait until they get wedded. This accounts for the prevalence of premarital sex in the country. At present, one can say that it’s normal to know people who had sex already. But what’s alarming is the rapid growth of the number of people who had sexes before marriage. Different researches show the rise of this number. In the last century, only a few, if not zero, gave themselves to premarital sex. This information if compared to present data would give an overwhelming difference. Statistics in 2008 showed that premarital sex was prevalent in30% of the Filipinos. This figured is actually small when compared to western countries. In the USA, 75% of the women would say that they already experienced premarital sex when they reached the age of nineteen. However, it would not seem right to compare a less developed country like the Philippines to far way more urbanize and liberal countries in the west. The figure 30% is,