Leo Andrew Diego

What makes you better than yesterday? If it is the last day of your life, what will you do to make it as unforgettable existence? This philosophical inquiries are rooted in man’s search for meaning, infinite sense of wonder, need for self-actualization, and insatiable hunger for knowledge and truth. Life is meant to be lived and not to be observed. We are all actors in this arena of life and not just spectators waiting for changes to drive our ways of being. When opportunity knocks at your doorstep, then grab it. If there is no opportunity out there, then create it. As long as we live, we come to the realization that problem are not there to make us suffer, they are there to serve as our stepping stone to build our strong character, unbreakable resilience and insurmountable hope to change for the better.

In the midst of current social change and public debates regarding provision of reproductive health education and services in the Philippines, the need exists to understand the realities of teenagers and young adults’ lives and the challenges they face in finding the way sexual and reproductive well-being. Although a few studies have focused on quantifying unintended pregnancy and abortion in the Philippines, few investigations using qualitative research methods have been conducted to more fully explore and situate these phenomena. Unsafe abortion through the use of abortifacients has been practiced since time immemorial. An estimated 26 million pregnancies are terminated legally throughout the world, and 20 million are terminated illegally, with more than 78,000 deaths. The Philippines, with a steadily increasing population that is approaching 100 million, faces significant challenges in the area of reproductive health.

This discourse analysis aimed to expose the context of globalization in the face of COVID 19 pandemic. I contend to refute the notion that globalization is the same before and during the pandemic crisis. Moreover, I seek to bring out the contextual landscape of social and cultural changes as influenced by pandemic and how the conduct of globalization in terms of power struggle, digitalization, debt and geographies of blame, care, interdependence, infection, immunization, vulnerability and resilience are being redefined in its optimum level.