Senator Sherwin Gatchalian (MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO) Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate basic education committee, issued the statement following a report of the Commission on Population and Development (POPCOM) that pregnancies among minors aged 10-14 was up by seven percent in 2019 compared to the previous year. Gatchalian also warned that the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to further increase the number of adolescent pregnancies, citing experiences from past calamities and disasters. When super typhoon ‘’Yolanda’’ struck, 23.5 percent of teenage girls in Eastern Visayas got pregnant, according to a study by the Department of Science and Technology-National Research Council of the Philippines (DOST-NRCP).