Are you in your mid-30s and still single?
If yes, then brace for a study that may be conducted by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST)-National Research Council of the Philippines (NCRP).
This, after DOST Secretary Fortunato T. dela Peña expressed concern over the apparent growing number of individuals who enjoy their singledom.
"Although I don’t know whether it is a problem. Sometimes, we in our friendships circles discuss the opposite and this is the late marrying age of some of our children. While there is problem of teenage pregnancy, we have children who are already late beyond marrying age who are still single. I think that that has been observed also, maybe, that can be studied later on by the NCRP,” he said during the seventh KTOP-COVID (Kapakanan ng Tao sa Oras ng Pandemya – COVID) webinar series "The Stories of Filipino Pregnant Teenagers and Teenage Mothers During the COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis” held on Tuesday.
A collegial body of highly-trained and productive scientists and researchers, NCRP envisions to address the demand for knowledge, skills and innovations in the sciences and humanities to contribute to nation-building and improve the quality of life of the Filipino people by 2025.
Dela Peña asked the NCRP to also look into the two key social issues during this coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
I would suggest to have a study if we can still do it. One, is actually the effect of the current policies on education, it is being well discussed now and debated upon,” he said.
“The prolong stay of our children at home, it is not in fact blended learning, it is 100-percent remote learning. Personally, I am concerned. My granchildren, at least those who are here have become fat. Since the remote learning they are at home, of course they are in front of the computer and then maybe after a while , they eat and there is no physically activity.”
The DOST Chief also suggested that the NCRP should also study how people come up with the current economic difficulties though entrepreneurship.
“Sabi nga nila (They say), there are many enterpreneurs, 'yung iba (others) by force of circumstances because they lost their jobs and they have to keep on earning something for the family and ther other one, is out of boredom... They are in fact in the high income bracket who have become bored out of doing nothing that they experimented on new enterprises and some among them have become very successful and of course, the shifting products by entrepreneurs, whereas before they were manufacturing lambanog, they are now disinfectant alcohol. These things are something interesting that could be studied.”