MANILA, Philippines – Two committees in the House of Representatives have endorsed for approval by the chamber of a bill which seeks to make as a criminal offense all forms of corporal punishment on children, like spanking, pinching or even ridiculing them.
The bill was sponsored by Congresswoman Monica Louise Prieto-Teodoro of Tarlac province in Central Luzon, who pointed out that children, like adults, should enjoy the right to be protected from physical and psychological abuses, including humiliation.
“As a lawmaker and as a parent, I cannot imagine hitting children as lawful while we believe it is against the law to hit other adults, prisoners and even animals,” said Teodoro, a former model and wife of Secretary Gilbert Teodoro of the Department of National Defense.
Teodoro expressed confidence her bill’s endorsement by the House Committee on Revision of Laws and the Committee on the Welfare of Children, would hasten its approval in the House and the Senate for signing into law by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo sometime this year.
The bill considers as a crime corporal punishment and all other forms of humiliating or degrading punishment of children in homes, schools and other places.
As such, the bill provides that children should not be slapped, kicked, burned, choked, beaten, pinched, whipped, have their ears twisted, threatened, ridiculed, cursed and belittled because “they behaved badly, disobeyed their parents or the authorities, failed to perform tasks or chores to the satisfaction of adults, or because they did not listen to what the adults told them.”
Under the bill, Teodoro said the penalties to be imposed on violators would be in accordance with the country’s Revised Penal Code as well as the anti-child abuse law and the Anti-Violence Against Women and Children Act.
At the same time, Congresswoman Maria Isabelle Climaco of Zamboanga City in Mindanao suggested that the bill should also include pertinent provisions of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to which the Philippines is a signatory.
Giving a further boost to the proposal was Secretary Esperanza Cabral of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), who pointed out that children, like adults, should enjoy the right to be protected from physical and psychological abuses, including humiliation.
Cabral said that before thinking of punishing children, parents and school officials must think how they can make the children realize their mistakes.
The DSWD secretary noted that other countries have penalized corporal punishment, especially those in Scandinavia, like Denmark and Sweden, which are at the forefront of children’s rights in Europe.
The bill requires the DSWD ad other government agencies as well as parent-teacher-community associations to work together in coming up with a program to prevent corporal punishment in homes and schools.]
Cabral said that once made punishable by law, victims of corporal management, like regular young victims of crimes, can be placed under the protective custody of the DSWD.
The victims, Cabral emphasized, would also be entitled to medical, legal and counseling services.
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This is a crazy joke! How do we reduce many disobedient children! If they lie, they deserve a beating. And if they threaten violence against parents, the parents must beat them to teach these kids a lesson to respect their bosses, since in our culture, children are merely property of the parents. Once under the roof of the parents, the child will always be a property of the parents. This legal system is completely crazy if it will come true.
When the children try to dominate the parents, a milder version like cursing, pinching ears, threatening for a consequence and acting on it, ridiculing and belittling must be acceptable only at home.
We’re not a European country, their culture is different and these suggestions from Scandinavia will never work here.