Circumcision time in the Philippines

Here in the Philippines, summertime is “tuli” or circumcision time for adolescent boys. Usually, boys who are aged 9-12 get circumcised during this time of the year. The Department of Health (DOH) also launched a few years ago an annual program that is roving health team tasked to circumcise boys and aged alike in many barangays.

Circumcision has become a culture for Filipino children. There is this belief that boys are cleaner and more hygienic when circumcised. Unlike in many parts of Europe where circumcision is an optional act, here in the Philippines, it is a mandatory act and an uncircumcised male is ostracized by the society.

Also, circumcision marks the start of manhood for most boys as 11 to 12-year-olds are usually the ones who do this. You can rarely see a Filipino male reaching age 13 and above who is still uncircumcised. Parents are the first ones to initiate this and order their children to be circumcised during summer time.

Summer time is the best time for circumcision because Filipinos are at rest from school. This is the longest break from school in the country (April to early weeks of June). Therefore, children who got circumcised in April will have been healed before the classes start in mid-June.

I browsed the net and found a compilation of why circumcision is performed.

* a religious sacrifice

* a rite of passage marking a little boy into a young adult

* a sympathetic magic to ensure virility

* as a means of suppressing sexual pleasure; remove excessive pleasure

* an aid to hygiene where regular bathing is impractical

* means of marking social status (lower or higher)

* discourage masturbation or any sexual action

* demonstration of one's ability to endure pain

* increase men's attractiveness to women

* symbolic castration (any action, surgical, chemical or otherwise, by which a male loses the functions of the testes or to a female loses the functions of the ovaries)

* male counterpart to menstruation or breaking the hymen