For the year 2022, a 13-year-old girl from Bontoc, Mountain Province, was registered as the youngest mother in the area.

In a statement from the Municipality of Bontoc on Friday, it stated that it has just been a few days since the Commission on Population and Development expressed their concern about Filipino girls who can possibly get pregnant at the ages of 10–14.

In 2022, 17 of the 39 registered teenage mothers are said to be from Bontoc, with the remaining 22 from neighboring towns who gave birth and registered in the municipality.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), mothers aged 10 to 19 have a higher risk of eclampsia, puerperal endometritis, and systemic infections than women aged 20 to 24.

Babies born to the aforementioned mothers are also at a higher risk of low birth weight, preterm birth, and severe neonatal conditions.

All of this is happening while teenage pregnancies among Filipino women are expected to fall to 5.4% in 2022, down from 8.6% in 2017.

The Department of Education (DepEd) previously expressed its support for Senate proposals to make comprehensive sex education mandatory at all levels of basic education in an effort to reduce the number of teen pregnancies in the country.