The Senate building at the GSIS Complex in Pasay City. (Photo by LYN RILLON / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
MANILA, Philippines — Senate bills seeking to increase the age of sexual consent and determination of statutory rape from the current 12 years old to 16 years old were approved at the committee level on Thursday.
Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri moved for the approval of the bills during the joint hearing of the Senate committees on justice and human rights, and of women, children, family relations and gender equality.
“I move that we approve it at the committee level so that you can come up with a committee report. I guarantee you, Mr. Chairman, that we will make sure that we pass this in the fastest possible time,” he said, addressing Senator Richard Gordon, chairman of the Committee on Justice and Human Rights.
Senator Imee Marcos then seconded the motion.
“We’ll try to push this over the weekend so we can file the committee report on Monday,” Gordon then said.
Zubiri, Gordon, and Marcos are among the authors of the eight Senate bills calling to raise the age for determining statutory rape. Other authors are Senators Risa Hontiveros, Leila De Lima, Sherwin Gatchalian, Nancy Binay, and Ramon Revilla Jr. However, the age being proposed by the senators in their filed bills vary.
In their filed bills, Zubiri and Gordon pushed to raise the age for statutory rape to 15, but they both agreed to have it at 16 during the hearing.
Binay and Revilla both sought to raise the age to 16, while De Lima, Hontiveros, Gatchalian, and Marcos wanted it to be at 18.
The Anti-Rape Law, signed in 2017, pegs the age of statutory rape at 12 years old.
In pushing for the passage of the bills, Gordon noted that the age of sexual consent in the Philippines is the lowest in Asia and one of the lowest in the world. He pointed out that victims of statutory rape are being “robbed of their youth.”
“The physical and emotional effects create lasting scars, emotional and physical, psychological ones that the damage can last a lifetime,” he said.
Gordon also cited a 2016 study of Unicef Philippines which found that one in every five children aged 13 to 17 has experienced sexual violence.
Hontiveros, chair of the committee on women, described this figure, which was taken from before the pandemic, as a “chilling statistics in itself.”
“New data is emerging that demonstrates that disasters, pandemics, and economic uncertainty put children, particularly girls, at greater risk of gender-related violence. It’s absolutely scandalous that the age of sexual consent in the Philippine is the second lowest in the world,” she added.
According to Zubiri, the average age for statutory rape in other Asian countries is also 16. He said the Philippines should follow the international average standard of 16 to 18 years old for statutory rape age.
“We have to do that now, to allow our children to really live their lives to the fullest, and not lose their innocence at such a young age. It’s such a barbaric act that should be condemned and penalized to the utmost extent,” he said.
Citing information from the Philippine National Police, Marcos, meanwhile, noted that rape remains one of the top crimes being committed in the country. She added that teenage pregnancy has likewise alarmed even the World Bank as it also poses an economic problem.