FILE PHOTO: Senator Rosa Hontiveros. INQUIRER FILES
MANILA, Philippines — A bill seen to boost the protection of children against online sexual abuse and exploitation now only needs the signature of President Rodrigo Duterte to become a law.
This, after the Senate and the House of Representatives separately ratified on Monday the bicameral conference committee report on the disagreeing provisions of Senate Bill No. 2209 and House Bill No. 10703 or the proposed Anti-Online Sexual Abuse or Exploitation of Children (OSAEC) and Anti Child Sexual Abuse or Exploitation Materials (CSAEM) Act, respectively.
“Truly, the 18th Congress will be remembered for many things, and one of these will be the good it has done for Filipino children,” said bill sponsor Senator Risa Hontiveros.
Hontiveros, chair of the Senate committee on women, children, family relations, and gender equality, said the proposed legislation creates a “specific offense” of OSAEC and imposes penalties for the same.
It also increases the duties of the private sector, with emphasis on electronic service providers, internet intermediaries, and financial intermediaries, specifically with respect to the blocking and preserving of OSAEC materials found on their platforms, and cooperation with law enforcement agents, according to the senator.
Further, the bill forms the National Coordinating Center against OSAEC and CSAEM under the Inter Agency Council against Trafficking (IACAT), she added.
The measure likewise “establishes protections and guarantees for child victims of OSAEC, particularly with respect [to] their psycho-social needs” and “grants additional investigation and surveillance tools to law enforcement agents, taking into account the complexities of the internet and the dark web.”
“I note that we yielded to the DOF (Department of Finance) and removed the automatic appropriation provision, thus the amounts necessary to fulfill the provisions of this act shall be subjected to the annual budgetary process,” Hontiveros continued.
She then thanked her colleagues for the passage of “this important measure.”
Earlier, Hontiveros noted that the Philippines is among the top 10 countries where child sexual abuse and exploitation materials are produced.
“The youngest recorded Filipino victim of OSAEC was a two-month-old baby,” she previously said.
Citing data from the Department of Justice, the senator further pointed out that OSAEC cases in the Philippines rose by 264.6 percent during the imposition of the enhanced community quarantine from March to May 2020.
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