The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) has congratulated the Philippine government for raising the minimum age of sexual consent from 12 to 16 to protect minors from rape and sexual abuse.
Republic Act No. 11648, which President Rodrigo Duterte signed into law on March 4, “was an essential step toward fulfilling children’s rights to protection from sexual violence, abuse and exploitation, regardless of their sex, orientation and gender identity and expression,” Oyunsaikhan Dendevnorov, the Unicef Philippines representative, said in a statement.
She noted that sexual violence results in severe physical, psychological and social harm for children, and victims experience an increased risk of human immunodeficiency virus and other sexually transmitted infections.
Victims also suffer from pain, illness, unwanted pregnancy, social isolation, and psychological trauma with many of them resorting to risky behaviors like substance abuse to cope with trauma, Dendevnorov added.
Until now, the country had the lowest minimum age of sexual consent in Asia and one of the lowest worldwide, behind Nigeria’s age 11, “leaving children vulnerable to abuse and exploitation,” she said.
A joint 2015 study by Unicef and the Center for Women’s Resources, a local nongovernmental group, showed that seven of 10 rape victims in the Philippines were children.
It also reported that one in five respondents aged 13 to 17 reported experiencing sexual violence, while one in 25 experienced forced consummated sex during childhood. (©Philippine Daily Inquirer 2022 /Tina G. Santos)
