HomeNewsChild rights group seeks increase in age of statutory rape victims

Child rights group seeks increase in age of statutory rape victims

A bill seeking to raise the age of consent and determination of statutory rape was approved at the committee level in the Senate on October 1

A child rights group in the Philippines called on legislators to pass a law that will increase the age of statutory rape victims from 12 years old to 16.

The Salinlahi Alliance for Children’s Concerns stressed the urgency of the passage of a law, especially because the pandemic has exacerbated children’s vulnerability to abuses.

According to statistics, child sexual abuse, including child rape, has been rampant even without the pandemic.




The 2016 National Baseline Study on Violence against Children revealed that 1 in 5 Filipino children aged 13-18 years old has experienced sexual violence.

Of these, 32 percent reported that they were raped.

A bill seeking to raise the age of consent and determination of statutory rape was approved at the committee level in the Philippine Senate on Thursday, October 1.

Senator Imee Marcos, one of the authors of the bill, said “existing laws that set the age of sexual consent at 12 years old have failed to prevent rampant cases of abuse against Filipino children.”

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The Anti-Rape Law, which was signed by President Rodrigo Duterte in 2017, sets the age of statutory rape, or the non-forcible sexual activity in which one of the individuals is below the age of consent, at just 12 years old.

Under the current law, abusers who can easily justify a relationship and consent with children as young as 12 years old, can get away with their abuses.

Once the proposed bill is signed into law, any adult who commits sexual activity with someone below 16 years old will automatically face life imprisonment.

The Philippines has become the “global epicenter for child pornography” with thousands of photos of Filipino children bartered and traded online, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund.

The Commission on Population and Development has earlier cited that the rising number of early pregnancies in the country occurring among children aged 10-14 may also be linked to an element of abuse.

“It is important that the lack of consent is presumed especially among minors,” Salinlahi said in its statement.

“We must recognize that a 12-year old child cannot in any way properly discern abuse and consequently cannot adequately defend herself or himself from such,” said the group.

Children’s rights advocate Father Shay Cullen has earlier called for the passage of a law that will increase the age of victims of statutory rape.

“We must work to promote the passing of just laws and rally for the implementation of the rule of law and bring down those who put themselves above it,” he said.

The missionary priest, however, said there should be a provision on close-in-age exception to protect young people from being labeled sex offenders for having consensual sex with their peers.

“Teenagers of similar ages who engage in a sex act should be excluded since teenage sex is a common occurrence,” he said.

“It has taken many years of immoral collusion to prevent the age of consent to be raised from 12 to 16 years. That is soon to change,” the priest also wrote.

He said that once the law will be passed, “legal history will be made to end this shameful sham of the current law that in effect allows child sexual abuse.”

The Philippines has the lowest age of sexual consent in Asia and one of the lowest in the world.

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