Age of consent in the Philippines
Source: By Sonal Gupta: The Indian Express
The Philippines in March 2022 raised its age of sexual consent from 12 years to 16 years, with President Rodrigo Roa Duterte signing off on the amendment to the Special Protection of Children against Abuse, Exploitation, and Discrimination Act.
For years activists had called upon the government to raise the age of consent in the Philippines, a country dominated by Roman Catholics. Until 7 March 2022, it had one of the lowest ages of consent in the world, with roughly one in five children experiencing sexual violence.
What does the new law state?
Republic Act (RA) No. 11648 signed by Duterte on 7 March increased the age of determining statutory rape to 16 years.
The law is gender-neutral and applies to both male and female children and offenders. It reads that rape is committed “by a person who shall have carnal knowledge of another person” that the “offended party is under sixteen (16) years of age or is demented.”
The law also holds the seduction of a minor over 16 but under 18 “committed by any person in public authority, priest, home-servant, domestic, guardian, teacher, or any person who, in any capacity, shall be entrusted with the education of custody of the minor seduced” punishable by a prison sentence.
The Act directs the Department of Education in the Philippines to create awareness of child rights by teaching age-appropriate subjects regarding the provisions of this law and including it in the basic curriculum.
Close-in-age exemption
The new law allows consensual sex, in the absence of intimidation or exploitation, between a person under 16 years of age and a partner of not more than three years of age-gap. The partner may not be younger than 13.
“Provided, That there shall be no criminal liability on the part of a person having carnal knowledge of another person under sixteen (16) years of age when the age difference between the parties is not more than three (3) years, and the sexual act in question is proven to be consensual, non-abusive, and non-exploitative: Provided, further, That if the victim is under thirteen (13) years of age, this exception shall not apply (sic),” the law reads.
It defines “non-abusive” as the “absence of undue influence, intimidation, fraudulent machinations, coercion, threat, physical, sexual, psychological, or mental injury or maltreatment, either with intention or through neglect, during the sexual activities”. And “non-exploitative” as “no actual or attempted act or acts of unfairly taking advantage of the child’s position of vulnerability, differential power, or trust during sexual activities”.
This is in line with the ‘Romeo and Juliet laws’ enforced in several countries to avoid criminalising consensual sex between adolescents. For instance, in the state of Ohio in the United States, despite the age of consent being 16 years, consensual sex between those aged 13 years or older with a partner aged below 18 years of age is considered legal. Similarly, in France, where the age of consent is 15, consensual sex is allowed between a minor and a partner up to five years older.
Child abuse in Philippines & need to raise the age of consent
When it was introduced in the House, the Bill to amend the age of consent in the Philippines noted that UNICEF found the country’s age of consent “not compliant with the international average”. Most countries have the age of consent at 16 years.
In a statement urging the Senate to pass the ‘End Child Rape’ Bill in 2021, UNICEF had observed that the legislation hadn’t changed in the last 90 years.
Moreover, a 2015 study found that 21.5 per cent of the 3,866 Filipino children (13 to 24 years of age) reported having experienced sexual violence in their childhood. More males claimed to have such an experience over females. Significantly, perpetrators in several cases were reported to be those at home, such as the father, brother, or stepmother.
More recently, data gathered by the Save the Children (Philippines) organisation in just two months of the coronavirus pandemic – June to July 2020 – showed that 16.2 per cent of respondents aged between 10 to 17 years spoke about sexual abuse.
News agency AP has also documented a “culture of cover-up and silence” over sexual abuse in churches. In a country with roughly 80 to 85 per cent Catholics, in 2002 an archbishop, during a national conference of bishops, had estimated that 200 of the 7,000 priests in the Philippines may have “committed some form of sexual impropriety”. In fact, President Duterte, too, has claimed that he was sexually abused as a child by a bishop. In 2013, a Manila cardinal was quoted as saying, “In Asian cultures, it is often better for such cases to be handled quietly, inside the church,” AP reported, adding that prosecution of priests was “exceedingly rare”.
While raising the age of consent brings several cases of sexual abuse within the ambit of legal offence, a policy brief by UNICEF also argues that 12 years of age is “too low” for consent as the child has “barely gone through puberty”. “The part of a child’s brain that processes his or her understanding of the consequences of his or her decisions, has not yet developed at 12, and in fact, continues to develop at 18. Therefore, setting 12 as the age of consent to sex goes against scientific evidence around brain development as well as physical and emotional maturity,” the document read.
What is the age of consent in India and other countries?
In India, The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, defines a “child” as anyone below 18 years of age, and hence, engaging in sexual activity with a ‘child’ is considered sexual assault.
With the Philippines’ new law, the age of consent remains lowest in Angola at 12 years.
While several reports state that the age of consent in Nigeria is 11, according to its Child Rights Act 2003, “No person shall have sexual intercourse with a child.” The law goes on to state that a person will be charged with an offence of rape if they do and “it is immaterial that the offender believed the person to be of or above the age of eighteen years”. Effectively, the age of consensual sex becomes 18.
According to data provided by the World Population Review, Japan has the age of consent at 13, and countries like China, Germany, Italy and Brazil have it as 14. In the United States, the age of consent is decided by states individually and varies between 16 to 18. The United Kingdom, too, has 16 as its age of consent.
The highest age of consent is seen in Bahrain at 21, while South Korea has specified it at 20.
