PHILIPPINES RAISES AGE OF SEXUAL CONSENT FROM 12 TO 16

Tue 08 March 2022:

President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines changed a legislation on Monday, raising the age of sexual consent to 16 years old. This action, according to child rights experts, will protect children from rape and abuse.

Sex with a person under the age of 16 will be prohibited under the new rule. It also carries a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison.

Previously, the country had one of the lowest consent ages in the world. Adults could have intercourse with minors as young as 12 if both parties agreed.

Margarita Ardivilla, child protection specialist at the UN children’s fund UNICEF in the Philippines said, “Having this law is a very good protective instrument for our children from sexual violence, whether or not it starts online or whether or not it also starts in a face-to-face encounter.”

“It is very important to have a clear age to determine statutory rape and the below 12 of a 1930 law was just something that was unjustifiable.”

As per Rowena Legaspi, executive director of the Children’s Legal Rights and Development Center, the law “sends a very strong message that child rape is a heinous crime and must be punished accordingly.”

According to a 2015 survey conducted jointly by UNICEF and the Center for Women’s Resources, a local non-governmental organization, seven out of ten rape victims in the Philippines were children. In addition, one in every five 13 to 17-year-olds said they had been the victim of sexual violence, according to the study.

In addition, one in every 25 children has had forced sex as a child.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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