Close to five proposed bills had been filed in the Senate that seek to amend the age covered under statutory rape in the Philippines.
Under the Anti-Rape Law of 1997, statutory rape occurs when a child age 12 or below engages in sexual intercourse, be it with consent or coerced.
Under the existing law, children under 12 do not have the capacity to give consent.
This prompted Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri to file a bill seeking to increase the age from 12 to 15 years old.
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian’s version, on the other hand, wants to elevate it to 18 years old.
Gatchalian said the age of majority in the Philippines is 18, when an individual can enter into a contract and begin to enjoy the right to vote.
“Consequently, the age of majority should also be considered as the proper age in terms of giving sexual consent,” he added.
Gatchalian believes that increasing the statutory rape age to 18 will address the prostitution problem among young people.
In other countries such as the United States, the legal age of consent is between 16 and 18.
And like Canada and Australia, the Philippines set the age of consent to 16.
Meanwhile, the Center for Women’s Resources said more than 52,000 rape and attempted rape cases had been recorded from 2005 to 2014.
A very significant number of this (75%) have children as victims.
Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority, on the other hand, showed that between 2012 and 2014, rape cases in the country were on the uphill.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development, meanwhile, said of the more than 2,000 cases of child abuse recorded, 539 were done sexually.
The lawmakers believe that it is high time to amend the law to further protect the youth, especially young children, from abuse. (from the report of Nel Maribojoc) /mbmf
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