STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

This study seeks to determine the changes in the Filipino family

1. Can Filipinos can adapt these changes?

2. How will the law become protective of all forms of families?

3. How will government protect the rights and address the needs of the “new” and

emerging family configurations?

Contemporary Household

Setting and Relationship

Submitted by:

Jonathan Rian G. Fiel

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The realities of Filipino families are changing cannot be denied. What is

interesting now is how our society will adapt to these changes. How will the law become

protective of all forms of families? How will government protect the rights and address

the needs of the “new” and emerging family configurations?

INTRODUCTION

The family is the center of the social structure and includes the nuclear family,

aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins and honorary relations such as godparents,

sponsors, and close family friends. The common notion that the nuclear Filipino family

consisting of a married couple, man and woman, with children, living together under one

roof, is being challenged. From where I sit, I see a growing change in the better

appreciation of the quality of relationship in the family more than its composition.

“The Filipino family is in transition,” said. Dr. Grace T. Cruz of the University of

the Philippines Population Institute as she introduced her talk during the recently

concluded Partners’ Conference of the Philippine Center for Population and

Development (PCPD), Inc., a foundation that supports initiatives on reproductive health

and POPDEV.

According to Dr. Grace Cruz, self-identification as a family is getting to be more

common among groups of people who love, respect, and care for each other no matter

if they do not fit the traditional definition of what a family is. If people feel and identify as

a family, so be it.

The existence of the not-so-usual family configurations cannot be denied.

 A friend, a well-known academic, is finding the joys and struggles of parenthood.

He is raising his three children single-handedly. His kids, two boys and a girl, are all

adopted. This friend of mine is gay.

I know a lesbian couple, both lawyers, who decided they wanted kids. Both of

them got pregnant and gave birth. The two beautiful children, a girl and a boy, are being

reared by two loving mommies.

We know many people who got married, had kids, and eventually got separated. Some

are in new relationships, others decided to raise their children alone.

There are heterosexual couples who have been happily together under one roof

for many years though they remain unmarried. Some couples have kids but others do

not. On the other hand, I also know of married couples who decided not to have kids.

Some gay and lesbian couples go to great lengths to get “married” despite knowledge

that their ceremonies are not binding in the country.

A transgender woman is in a relationship with someone who identifies as a

lesbian who has a child from a previous marriage to a man. The couple considers

themselves as a family. More importantly, they are a happy family, no matter what other

people think and say.

Children of the millions of overseas Filipino workers are being raised not by their

parents but by other family members. Couples are geographically separated for years

and are only able to be together for a short period in a year.

 Dr. Cruz, in her presentation, established trends on families based on

comparative results of studies. Some of these are:

The number of women in live-in relationships has doubled. This gives the

impression that this arrangement is already culturally acceptable. Since there is no

divorce law in the country, I am guessing that such an arrangement also involves

separated women.

Delayed marriages are getting to be the practice. There are many who decide to

get married after some time of living together. Others, choose to marry later in life when

they are already more stable.

Live-in arrangements and delayed marriages may have been brought about by

the changing values and perceptions in relation with sexuality and reproductive health.

Even among the young people, Dr. Cruz mentioned that pre-marital sex is getting to be

more acceptable, and virginity is slowly but increasingly seen as less important.

The emergence of solo parent families is also notable. Some are solo parents

only temporarily because of migration for work of the partners but others are widowed or

separated, and thus, being solo parent is more permanent.

Related with this is the emergence of female-headed households which make up of

18% of all Philippine households. 9% of these are headed by single women, 7% are

separated/divorced, and 24% are married but the husband is away.

There is also emergence of “transnational family” defined as family members

living in different countries. This transnational family is a direct offshoot of labor

migration which is estimated to be about 10% of the country’s population. There is an

entire generation of children who grew up with surrogate parents or with only one

parent. (Cruz, G., 2014)

CONCLUSION

The Filipino family is in transition. This is evident in the changing nature of union

formation marked by increasing proportion in a live‐in arrangement and emergence

transnational families, and solo parenting. It is not about the composition, what matters

is the quality of relationship. There are other factors that contribute to these changing

view of the composition of the Filipino family such as their concept of marriage, divorce,

sex education etc

There are a lot of challenges confronting the Filipino family today such as more

women are becoming breadwinners and head of households, gadgets become the

substitute parent of a child, socialization in the family is neglected and many more.

RECOMMENDATION

It is recommended that sex education should be normalize in the Philippines as

we adapt changes in the notion of family.