After delays caused by the pandemic circumcision season is finally open in the Philippines. That is the time of year when doctors hunt down young boys with intact foreskin, hold them down, drug them, and then slice it off.
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| https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2021/08/30/2123631/philippine-circumcision-season-underway-after-virus-delays |
For more than a year, Caspien Gruta has been teased because his circumcision — a rite of passage for boys in the Philippines — was delayed, first by a volcanic eruption and then the coronavirus pandemic.
"I worry if I don't get circumcised now, I will be shamed," said Gruta, 12.
The Philippines has one of the highest rates of circumcision in the world, with many seeing the centuries-old practice as key for boys to enter manhood.
Even as circumcision comes under increasing scrutiny elsewhere, with some critics branding it "child abuse", it is rarely questioned in the Philippines and boys face tremendous pressure to undergo the procedure.
Every year, thousands of pre-teens have the operation for free at government or community-sponsored clinics.
But last year, the "circumcision season" was cancelled for the first time in living memory due to the virus outbreak, delaying the milestone for many boys like Gruta.
Left in limbo — and with their foreskin intact — the boys have been ridiculed by their male relatives and friends.
Gruta was one of the oldest boys to line up at a covered basketball court turned make-shift clinic in Silang, Cavite south of Manila, one of the few provinces that have slowly resumed the free service since May.
"I feel like I'm a genuine Filipino now because getting circumcised is part of being a Filipino," Gruta said after the 20-minute procedure.
Wearing masks and face shields, the boys sat on plastic chairs near a row of wooden tables surrounded by a red curtain.
Some looked excited or did their best to appear nonchalant. Others fidgeted as they waited.
After removing their shorts, the youngsters lay down on a table with their legs hanging over the edge and their groin covered by an operating sheet.
Some bit into a facecloth or covered their eyes as they were given a local anaesthetic. The surgeon then went to work.
"I got circumcised because they said I will grow taller and I will get better in sports," said 12-year-old Almer Alciro, who went to another outdoor clinic for his delayed procedure.
While he waited for the free service to resume, Alciro's friends mocked him as "uncircumcised" — an insult similar to coward in a country where the procedure is a badge of masculinity.
"I'm happy that I'm finally circumcised," Alciro said.
Boys as young as eight face social pressure to go under the knife. Even hospital advertisements urge boys to "Be Man Enough".
Mass circumcisions are common during the hottest months from April to June when school children are on a long break.
Normally hundreds of boys undergo outdoor surgery on a single day, but Covid-19 rules have drastically reduced group sizes.
Circumcision is an important "demarcating line" between boys and men, when the youngsters take on more responsibility in the family and learn about sex, said Nestor Castro, a professor of anthropology at the University of the Philippines.
"Once a boy gets circumcised, he already leaves the position of being a child and he is now considered... as an adult," Castro said.
"If you are a circumcised male... you should act as a grown-up man, no longer as a young boy."
Imagine thinking cutting off the most sensitive part of your member will make you grow taller and get better in sports. Whoever told that boy such a thing would happen to him is an awful person. And what kind of relatives would ridicule a young boy about what his dong looks like? That's pretty sick and uncalled for.
The origin of circumcision in the Philippines goes way back before the Spanish arrived. Some think it has to do with the arrival of Islam in Luzon. When the Spanish arrived the Muslims had already made inroads into Luzon and had they been any later this nation would surely be another Muslim stronghold. But even though Ishmael, the reputed father of the Arab Muslims, was circumcised at the age of 13 Muslims are usually circumcised at 7 days of age.
Other groups, such as The God Culture, would say that circumcision is proof that Israelites made it to the Philippines long ago. But Filipino circumcision is not at all like that of the Israelites. For one thing it is the sign of entering manhood and not the sign of being a member of a unique covenant community. For another Israelites were circumcised 8 days after birth. Any delay and they would be out of the community.
Circumcision in the Philippines is certainly not a Christian practice. In Christianity baptism serves as a new circumcision which cleanses and purifies the heart. Paul the Apostle is very clear that heart circumcision is more important than physical circumcision. Likewise the law of Moses says:
Deuteronomy 10:16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.
One can certainly be circumcised and a Christian but it is pretty much worthless.
Galatians 5:2 Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
You also will not become taller and better at sports.
It is not clear why Filipino boys are circumcised between 8-14 years old. The origins of the practice are lost to time. The only thing really known about it is that it is a voluntary act of self-mutilation, with the help of a doctor of course, which makes one a man. One could say it is a sacrifice because the boy is sacrificing the pleasure he would have experienced with a fully intact member.
Every culture has its rituals concerning what makes one a man or a woman. As barbaric and pointless as this custom is, it could be worse. The Etoro people of Papa New Guinea have their young boys ingest the semen of their elders in order to become men.
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| Get back here you wascally wabbit so I can cut your foreskin off. It's circumcision season! |
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