One step closer to helping end child rape: Child rights advocates commend House for approving bill increasing age to determine statutory rape

26 November 2020 - Child rights advocates under the umbrella alliance Child Rights Network (CRN) commend the House of Representatives for approving on second reading House Bill No. (HB) 7836, which provides for stronger protection against rape, sexual exploitation, and abuse, and increasing the age of sexual consent to determine statutory rape from 12 to 16 years old.

We note with distinction how auspicious the timing of the passage of HB 7836 was, as it passed on November 25, in time for the commemoration of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and also coinciding with the celebration of the National Children’s Month.

We laud the House of Representatives for moving this landmark piece of legislation an inch closer to becoming law. For years, child rights advocates have exhausted all avenues to press Congress to legislate this important bill. We now distinctly note how the House Committees on Revision of Laws and Welfare of Children worked tirelessly with CRN to ensure that essential provisions were included in the bill. Said important provisions include:

• Increasing the age to determine the commission of statutory rape from below 12 to below 16
• Equalizing the protection for victims of rape, whether a boy or a girl
• Inclusion of “close-in-age exemption” for consensual, non-abusive, and non-exploitative sexual relations between partners whose age difference is minor
• Removal of forgiveness exemption if the rapist marries the victim

These key provisions were crafted with the help of various child development experts, and inputs from national consultations with children, youth, sexual abuse survivors, psychologists, family court judges, government agencies, and civil society organizations – clearly legislation that came from the grassroots.

12 is too low

HB 7836 drastically corrected the archaic provisions of the Revised Penal Code on rape.

Under Article 266-A of the Revised Penal Code, rape is committed even without the presence of elements of force, threat, intimidation, or fraudulent machinations, as long as the victim is under the age of 12. This crime is known as “statutory rape,” wherein consent of the victim to engage in sex – even if present or was presumed given – cannot be used as a defense on account of the victim’s age.

However, the age 12 is far below international standards. Before HB 7836, the age to determine statutory rape in the country was the lowest in Asia and one of the lowest in the world at 12, only bested by Nigeria at age 11.

This archaic age limit also – for so long – ignored data and figures that it essentially enabled. For one, according to the 2015 National Baseline Study on Violence Against Children, one in every five children aged 13-17 years old experienced sexual violence. Data from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) also show that from 2015 to 2017, most of the victims of rape and child incest were between the ages of 14 to below 18.

Also, setting the age to determine statutory rape at age 12 is not consistent with scientific studies of brain development as well as physical and emotional maturity. Various studies have proven that the rational part of a person’s brain – the parts that respond to situations with sound judgment – will not fully develop until age 25.

By increasing the age to determine statutory rape, we widen the mantle of protection offered by our laws to children. We expect the House of Representatives to expeditiously pass HB 7836 in the third and final reading, and a counterpart bill is passed similarly in the Senate. ###

About Child Rights Network

Child Rights Network is the largest alliance of organizations and agencies pushing for children’s rights legislation in the Philippines.

In 2018, Child Rights Network launched the #ENDChildRape campaign, which seeks to raise the age to determine statutory rape in the Philippines. Our petition at Change.Org (bit.ly/ENDChildRape) has now gathered more than 140,000 signatures.

Media Contact:

Richard Dy
crnphilippines@gmail.com