MANILA, Philippines?What the show ?Willing Willie? did to Jan-Jan Suan, the 6-year-old boy who was told to simulate a striptease while in tears in exchange for cash in front of a cheering studio audience, was criminal, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) said Tuesday.

The CHR said it would investigate the episode as it appeared to have violated a law protecting children.

?The commission will investigate this incident in order to identify the person/s liable and to recommend proper legal actions against them,? it said in a statement.

The statement was signed by CHR Chair Loretta Ann Rosales and Commissioner Ma. Victoria Cardona, who is in charge of children?s issues.

The Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) said it would also investigate the episode after it was inundated by ?numerous complaints? from viewers.

Child abuse

The CHR said it ?is also deeply alarmed that the abuse suffered by Jan-Jan was seen on national television and that its videos are being repeatedly watched by the public, including children.?

A March 12 episode of the game show on TV5, showed the boy being persuaded to perform a sexy dance in front of the studio audience. The show?s host, Willie Revillame, was seen encouraging and taunting the boy, who was in tears while performing.

The CHR officials said it was ?disturbing? that the audience, the boy?s family, and the show were complicit in demeaning Jan-Jan.

Multiple pressures

By encouraging him to perform a lewd dance in front of a laughing and jeering audience despite his tears, they were exploiting him, the CHR said.

?The multiple pressures exerted on Jan-Jan by the TV program?s host, audience and his parents to perform a humiliating act in exchange for P10,000 constitute child abuse as defined in Section 10 of Republic Act No. 7610, or Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation, and Discrimination Act,? the CHR said.

Those found guilty of violating this provision stand to face imprisonment of up to 20 years, the rights agency said.

Viral

?He?s obviously doing it with a heavy heart, but he has to do it for his family,? Revillame said during the dance, with the footage going viral on video sharing and social networking Internet sites.

One clip has drawn half a million hits on YouTube.

Women?s group Gabriela said that the dance was an atrocious act of child abuse.

Calls for boycott

On social networking site Facebook, critics, who earlier launched an anti-Willie Revillame movement, posted several calls for his removal from TV and a boycott of his show?s sponsors.

?In accordance with the board?s duty to enforce the constitutional mandate that the State shall defend the rights of children from all forms of neglect, abuse, cruelty, exploitation and other conditions prejudicial to their development, the board has referred the matter to the hearing and adjudication committee for appropriate disposition,? MTRCB Chair Mary Grace Poe-Llamanzares said in a statement.

The MTRCB said television programs and producers were obligated to follow standards on children?s protection whenever a minor appeared onscreen.

Apology

It said that whenever children were featured in television programs, producers were mandated to observe legal standards stipulated in RA 7610 to avoid ?psychological abuse, cruelty, sexual abuse and emotional maltreatment? and ?any act by deeds and words which debases, degrades or demeans the intrinsic worth and dignity of the child.?

On Monday, Revillame said that his intention was to only entertain the viewers and the studio audience.

TV5 apologized on Tuesday on behalf of Revillame and the station, saying there was no intention to humiliate the boy who was accompanied by his aunt and who approved his performance.

The network said the boy appeared to be in tears not because he was forced to dance but because he was playing a role and got scared of a towering former basketball player who was also on the set.

Gabriela said it was not buying the explanations from Revillame and TV5, saying both parties were irresponsible for allowing and pushing Jan-Jan to perform the lewd dance.

Partido ng Manggagawa denounced the insensitivity and utter disregard of Revillame on the rights of the 6-year-old child against exploitation and abuse.

Brash language, lewd jokes

?Children have rights, too!? Partido ng Manggagawa secretary general Judy Ann Chan-Miranda said in a statement.

Revillame, the country?s highest paid TV host, ruffled feathers in the past for his often brash language and lewd jokes.

In 2006, a stampede in a waiting line at a stadium where Revillame?s show was to be broadcast killed 74 people. Criminal charges of negligence against Revillame and executives at ABS-CBN TV station, where he worked at the time, were later dropped.

Last year, Revillame left ABS-CBN after he was suspended for threatening to resign on the air if the management did not fire another talent at the same station he was quarreling with.

In 2009, while the nation was mourning the death of former President Corazon Aquino, Revillame provoked angry comments from viewers and commentators by objecting to sharing on the TV screen live video of Aquino?s funeral procession with his show, which was ongoing. Reports from Kristine L. Alave, Associated Press and Agence France-Presse