House OKs bill raising age of statutory rape to 16 years old

The House of Representatives on Tuesday approved on third and final reading the measure seeking to raise the age of statutory rape from the current 12 years old to 16 years old, regardless of the sexual orientation of the victims or the offenders.

With 207 votes in the affirmative and three in the negative, the chamber approved House Bill 7836 which sets the age of sexual consent to 16 years and amends the Anti-Rape Law as well as the Revised Penal Code.

If the measure is enacted into law, any adult who has sexual intercourse with a minor below 16 years old will be considered guilty of rape even if the minor gave his or her consent.

“By establishing the crime of statutory rape to be any sexual activity with a child, of either sex, under the age of 16 - the law makes certain the punishment of those who commit such crime,” said Tingog party-list Representative Yedda Marie Romualdez, one of the authors of the measure.

Under the bill, rape is committed by any person against another person by:

• Inserting or causing the insertion of a person’s penis into another person’s inner or outer vaginal labia, anal orifice or mouth;
• Inserting or causing the insertion of a finger, instrument or object, into another person’s inner or outer vaginal labia or anal orifice;
• Placing or causing the placement of a person’s penis between, or rubbing or causing the rubbing thereof on, the breasts of another person.

Also considered rape is when any person caused another person or persons to perform the said acts even if the offender does not participate in it, under the following circumstances:

• By force, threat, intimidation, deception, coercion;
• By abuse of authority or moral ascendancy;
• By employment of means to deprive him or her of reason or render him or her unconscious;
• By other fraudulent machinations; or
• When the victim is incapable of giving consent by reason of his or her physical, mental, or psychological disability or condition.

A penalty of life imprisonment will be slapped against offenders under the measure.

Romualdez is urging her fellow lawmakers in the Senate to give a similar approval to the measure "as a gift for and a commitment to the safety of our children."

"Definitely, no children should be left without sufficient protection especially from rape. Child rape is an ugly and painful reality that we must collectively confront and address immediately and decisively. But it is not enough that we are indignant,” she said.

“Our indignation must translate into action, and concrete measures to stop it," she added. — DVM, GMA News