The age of consent in the Philippines is now 16-years-old from 12-years-old after President Rodrigo Duterte signed into law the Republic Act No. 11648.
The move aimed to protect minors from sexual abuse and exploitation. The new law will punish anyone found to have engaged in sexual intercourse with a Filipino aged under 16 as it will be considered “statutory rape” unless it is consensual and that their age gap is not more than 3 years. It also stressed that the act must be non-abusive and non-exploitative. These exemptions, however, do not apply if one of the persons involved is under 13-years-old.
The new law was also notably gender neutral meaning that anyone of any gender can have criminal liability for engaging in a non-consensual sexual act with a child.
This marks the end of the Philippines being among the countries with the lowest minimum ages of sexual consent, behind Nigeria’s age of 11.
Sen. Risa Hontiveros is the principal author of the new measure.
(ALSO READ: No means no and clothes are not consent: Stop victim blaming)
What are your thoughts on this? Share them in the comments below.
Do you have a story for the WhenInManila.com Team? Email us at story.wheninmanila@gmail.com or send us a direct message at WhenInManila.com Facebook Page. Interact with the team and join the WhenInManila.com Community at WIM Squad! We also share our stories on Viber, join us!
