Written by Vianca
TW : child abuse, rape, teen pregnancy
The age of consent in the Philippines is 12 years old, the lowest in Asia and the second lowest in the world. In our country, we consider 18 as the age of majority but the age of sexual consent is 12 years old.
This means that in the Philippines, any sexual intercourse with a minor who has not reached the age of 12 is automatically regarded as rape, even if the minor consented or appeared to have voluntarily engaged in the sexual act. Twelve is still too low.
This allows rapists of children to get away with their crimes and victimize more minors.
"Did you enjoy it?"
This is just one of the extreme questions being asked of child rape victims as young as 12 years old in court hearings.
Under our law, sexual intercourse with a child as young as 12 is NOT automatically considered as child rape. We have seen numerous cases of children recounting in court their experiences of abuse in the hands of sexual predators because they still have to prove the absence of consent.
I, the filipino admin writing this, is extremely afraid for my generation.
With the age of sexual consent being this low, thousands of children are being assaulted and raped. Nearly a third of the 14,000 cases of violence against women and children recorded were cases of child abuse.
“teenage mothers are more prone to abuse, according to the National Demographic and Health Survey (2017), which reported that 26.4 of married women aged 15-19 reported experiencing physical, sexual, and emotional violence.
An urgency to raise the age of sexual consent still remains. It was found that two out of three of the partners of adolescents in the Philippines are 20 years their senior.
There has been a spike of teenage pregnancy in the Philippines during 2019. The rate in which minors (specifically kids aged 10-14) are giving birth in the country keeps increasing every year by 7%.
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