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Duterte vetoes bill prohibiting corporal punishment on children


President Rodrigo Duterte has vetoed a bill that would protect children from physical and humiliating forms of punishment.

In his veto message, Duterte said he does not share the “overly sweeping condemnation” of corporal punishment, humiliating or not.

“On the contrary, I am of the firm conviction that responsible parents can and have administered corporal punishment in a self-restrained manner, such that the children remember it not as an act of hate or abuse, but a loving act of discipline that desires only to uphold their welfare,” the President said.

“Such manner of undertaking corporal punishment has given rise to beneficial results for society, with countless children having been raised up to become law-abiding citizens with a healthy respect for authority structures in the wider community,” he said.

Duterte warned the bill would allow government to extend its reach into the privacy of the family, “authorizing measures aimed at suppressing corporal
punishment regardless of how carefully it is practiced.”

He said he is aware of the growing trends in Western nations that see all forms of corporal punishment as an outdated form of disciplining children.

However, Duterte said the country should resist this trend in favor of a more balanced and nuanced approach, which is both protective of the child but recognizing the right of parents who believe in the merits of corporal punishment properly administered.

“The cultural trends of other countries are not necessarily healthy for our own nation,” he said.

Senator Risa Hontiveros, a proponent of the bill, earlier said the proposed legislation sought to develop a comprehensive program to provide parents and those who exercise parental authority over children with adequate parenting tools and learning resources “in employing a positive and non-violent way of disciplining children.”

She said Congress had agreed to protect children from all forms of physical and mental abuse, and injury, maltreatment or exploitation as they are used in the context of discipline.

“It recognizes and upholds the right of children as human beings to equal protection of the law, and ensures their protection from all forms of physical and mental violence,” Hontiveros said during a Senate session on December 3 last year.

“It promotes positive and nonviolent discipline of children at home, in schools, in workplaces, and alternative care systems by encouraging behavior change in adults which shall be complemented with the necessary structural support such as social programs that will provide necessary support for the child, parents, and other child caregivers,” she added.

Hontiveros said the reconciled bill respects the responsibilities, rights and duties of parents and other persons responsible for the child, and provides support and an enabling environment for parents to fulfill their parental responsibilities in a manner consistent with the evolving capacities of children.

The bill also ensures the observance of international standards of child protection, especially those found in international conventions and treaties to which the Philippines is a party to.

The Philippines ratified the United Nations' Convention on the Rights of the Child, which mandates states parties to "protect children against torture, or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." —KBK, GMA News

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