Child Protection Caravan

Date: February 22, 2019

Venue: St. Joseph Hall, Holy Angel University, Angeles City, Pampanga

The forum started roughly between 8:30 to 9:00 am. The masters of ceremony, local
faculty members of the university, spearheaded the opening of the forum followed by a prayer
led by a child chosen also from the said university. All the participants of the forum were
recognized, and the program was formally started.

For the first speaker's talk, she began with an audiovisual presentation which tackled
various rights of children all of which are monitored by a global association, the Convention on
the Rights of the Child, where the Philippines is also a member. In a nutshell, children have four
(4) main rights namely, the Right to survival, Protection, Development, and Participation.

Children's Right to survival basically states that they have the right to a happy and healthy
life, which includes nutritious food, clean water, clean air, and a clean environment. They should
also be safe from all types of harm, in lieu of their right to protection. Hurting, uncomfortable
touching and bullying are just some examples of the numerous dangers that a child is vulnerable
from, may it be actual or virtual. Children can always say no to certain people or things that make
them uncomfortable and/or unsafe.

Children at a young age should prioritize studying either through formal means like in
school or informal methods like in their homes, this is what it means to have the right to
Development. Child labor is a phenomenon existing in our society especially in the Philippines,
which is a violation of this right. School is where they learn and where they can play, both of
which are vital and necessary for the development of the child. Under the Right to Participation,
contrary to popular belief, children have the right to participate in the issues that concern them
and whenever possible and necessary, should voice out their opinions regarding the issue. This
can be achieved through various methods. One simple example is starting an online project or
advocacy which promotes true change in our society.

After watching the video, the speaker threw some questions to the audience asking for
their opinions and whether they learned from it. After that, various laws and other legal matters
regarding children’s rights were discussed, such as the R.A. 7610 or the Special Protection of
Children Against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act of 1992, R.A. 9344 as amended by
10630 or the Juvenile Justice Welfare Act and the R.A. 10627 or the Antibullying Act of 2013.

Under R.A. 7610, children below 18 or over but unable to fully take care of or protect
themselves due to a mental or physical disability or condition, are protected against all forms of
child abuse. Child Abuse as defined in this law, is the maltreatment, whether habitual or not, of
the child. This may include, psychological or physical abuse, acts, deeds or words that debase,
degrade or demean the intrinsic worth and dignity of the child as a human being, unreasonable
deprivation of basic needs and failure to immediately give medical treatment to an injured child
resulting in serious impairment of his or her growth and development, permanent incapacity or
death.

As provided by this law, there are various people who can file a complaint in the event of
a violation to the said law. They include the offended party, parents or guardians, ascendant or
collateral relative within the 3rd degree, officer, social worker or representative of a licensed child-
caring institution, officer or social worker of DSWD, Barangay Chairman and at least three
concerned, responsible citizens where the violation occurred. So as responsible and active
citizens of our society and government, we have the authority and discretion to enact the
provisions of this law and preserve the rights of the children it protects. As stated by the speaker,
in this law, the best interests of the child are the paramount considerations in all actions
concerning them.
 R.A. 9344 or the JJWA introduces the principle of restorative justice and the term “child
in conflict with the law”. Restorative justice, as explained by the speaker is different from the
formal justice given to adult criminals. From the word restorative, children undergo different kinds
of intervention and light punishments such as community service. The main goal is to rehabilitate
these children and transform them into responsible and law-abiding citizens. JJWA prioritizes
the protection of the child in these dire times. In JJWA, detention is a last resort, but in the event
of unavoidability, it disallows detention of children together with adults. It decriminalizes certain
offenses committed by minors and prohibits death penalty.

CICL or “Child in conflict with the law” is defined as a child who is alleged as, accused of,
or adjudged as having committed an offense under Philippine Laws. They are those who are
protected by the JJWA.

Children do not normally do bad things especially defy the law. This is where the term
“Child at Risk” comes in. It was defined in the forum as a child who is vulnerable to and at the
risk of committing criminal offenses because of personal, family and social circumstances. Due
to the ineffectiveness of their “environment” to instill good, moral and right conduct (GMRC)
within them, they tend to act not in accordance of social norms and government laws. Certain
examples were given such as a child being abused by any person, being exploited, being
abandoned or neglected, born in a dysfunctional family, being out of school, being a street child,
living in a community with high level of criminality etc.

The last law discussed is the R.A. 10627 or the Anti-Bullying Act of 2013. This law protects
the students from any act of bullying. It requires all elementary and secondary schools both
public and private, to adopt policies to prevent and address bullying in their respective
institutions. The law recognizes the following as types of bullying; physical, verbal, emotional,
cyber and gender-based.

One saddening part of the discussion was when the places where bullying can happen
was mentioned. Among them, there were two which can be considered as most shocking; in
school grounds and in cyberspace. Schools are institutions of education and environments for
protection. Even without researches and statistics from famous government and private
companies, schools are where the greatest number of cases regarding bullying and
discrimination happen. None can compare with the internet when it comes to the instances
where bullying occurs. Since it is global, it is very difficult to monitor let alone prevent bullying or
discrimination. It is by far the greatest catalyst of bullying.

Amidst the existence and frequency of bullying in our society, some solutions on how to
fight and prevent bullying were given. One of them is reporting. It is within anyone’s discretion
to report sightings of discrimination. Particularly in school, students can report to their teachers,
guidance coordinators/counselor or any person designated to handle cases of bullying.

When proven guilty of bullying, R.A. 10627 provides disciplinary measures. The law
requires schools to give reasonable disciplinary measures on the bully or offending student that
is proportionate to the act committed. This includes, written reprimands, community service,
suspension, exclusion or expulsion as it is within the existing rules and regulations of the school
or of the Department for public schools. Moreover, the bully shall also be required to undergo an
intervention program which shall be administered or supervised by the school’s Child Protection
Committee and the parents of the bully shall be encouraged to join the intervention program
also.
 After discussing these laws, the speakers invited the audience to stand-up and join them
in a pledge to fight against bullying. Memorable parts of the pledge include standing up for others
that are being bullied, helping those in need and befriending victims of bullying to elevate their
hope and trust towards people and the society.

The MCs introduced the next speaker, Atty. Maria Margarita Ardivilla, OIC-Chief, Child
Protection, UNICEF Philippines. Before discussing her part of the forum, Atty. Ardivilla
introduced herself and again called all the participants and their affiliated courses and school,
where in the participants from Mabalacat City College was also mentioned and asked to stand
up and be recognized.

Atty. Ardivilla discussed the different Child Protection Legislative Advocacies such as
Statutory Rape, Age of Sexual Consent, Juvenile Justice and the Minimum Age of Criminal
Responsibility.

The discussion was in a question and answer format, much like a quiz bee. The first
question was about the legal age of consent to sex. As defined in the presentation, it is the
minimum legal age at which you can decide to have sex with someone. A child subjected to sex
at an age lower than the minimum as prescribed by this law, the perpetrator can be convicted
for statutory rape.

The legal age for sex is different in different countries depending on certain factors such
as SOGIE or Sexual Orientation Gender Identity Expression, type of sexual act, position of
authority or trust, state, territory, or federal laws, age gap and if married or unmarried. Among
these, one notable factor is the state, territory or federal laws. As explained by Atty. Ardivilla,
different countries have different standards when it comes to the legal age of consent to sex.
Some countries are more conservative and other more liberal. This led to the next question
which is, among all countries, which one has the lowest age of sexual consent. Fortunately, the
Philippines was not the answer because it was ranked second among those countries with a
legal age of 12 for sexual consent.

There are no international laws or guidelines that govern age of sexual consent, but the
CRC says that a child has the right to be protected from all forms of sexual abuse and
exploitation, and as compensation for the lack of said laws and guidelines, it promotes and
advocates the raising of the legal age of sexual consent in countries with low legal age especially
those countries who are members of the CRC.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child itself sent a recommendation to the
Philippines to expedite the amendment of the Anti-Rape Law of 1997, putting lack of consent as
the primary element of the definition of rape and raising the minimum age of sexual consent,
currently set too low at 12 years old, to at least 16 years.

A study regarding brain science was also used for reference in the discussion. The study
stated that brain structure and capacity are vastly different in adults and in children. Furth
ermore, brain maturity was found to start at 16 and ends around 25. Meaning to say, the legal
age of consent at 12 is invalid, unreasonable and violates children’s rights. This is the reason
why the UNCRC is advocating for raising legal age of sexual consent to at least 16 which is
scientifically proven to have more validity in thinking than in 15 and younger. Children born in
dysfunctional families, violence and early challenges at an age younger than 16 are more prone
to brain damage and slows their development, which justifies the need for high legal age of
sexual consent and child protection laws and programs.
 In addition, MRI Scans comparing brain development of people with toxic and stressful
environments versus those who grew with conducive and happy environments showed that the
former tends to have underdeveloped brains than the latter. Frontal temporal lobes associated
with reasoning, impulse control, decision-making, long-term planning, emotion regulation, and
evaluation of risks and rewards are underdeveloped. It was stated that excessive and repeated
stress causes the release of chemicals that impair cell growth and interfere with the formation of
heathy neural circuits in the brain.

Therefore, children at risk and CICLs must be protected and be given top priority in social,
economic and political discussions.

Some would believe that children have equal protection of the law. According to R.A.
8353 or the Anti-Rape Law, it can only be recognized as rape if it was committed by a man, to a
woman or female child. The law itself connotes inequality. Moreover, when a man rapes a girl
child, the sentence is reclusion perpetua or life-time imprisonment while when a man rapes a
boy child, the sentence is prision mayor or 6-12 years imprisonment. Protection among children
is biased, particularly in gender. Another problem with law when it comes to rape is that, when
the rapist marries the victim, the criminal action or penalty is extinguished. Simply said, marriage
is equal to forgiveness.

Atty. Ardivilla ended her part of the forum by asking the audience if we all agreed in raising
the age of statutory rape or age of sexual consent in the Philippines, and they did.

The next topic was about Children and the Minimum age of Criminal Responsibility
(MACR). One memorable thing about this part of the forum was that it was debunking different
social misconceptions about CICLs and children at risk. One notable misconception is that
nowadays, with the availability of technology and information, children know the difference
between right and wrong but, regardless of those things, children do not have the same
psychological and decision-making capacity as adults. As stated before by Atty. Ardivilla,
children’s brains are too undeveloped to discern criminal acts and at that age should continue
developing instead of convicting them. The second misconception is that, crime is rampant in
the community and many children commit those crimes but in fact children commit only a small
fraction of total crimes in the Philippines. According to statistics, children commit only 2.34% of
the total crime volume in the Philippines. One notable comment in the discussion was about
children and adolescents being vulnerable to coercion. Hence the advocacy of the CRC which
is #ChildrennotCriminals because mostly children tend to be forced into criminality and not by
discretion.

It was emphasized in the discussion that our LGU’s have a weak commitment in the
protection of our children. According to data, as of 2016, only 53% of LGUs in our country
allocate at least 1% of their IRA for the strengthening and implementation of the programs
protecting the rights of children. Furthermore, our government lacks the necessary Social
Workers, in fact as of 2018, only 4% of LGUs have licensed social workers.

One of the most saddening misconceptions of society is that jailing children prevents them
from re-offending and becoming hardened criminals well in fact, according to science,
particularly psychology, detention or institutionalization of children, especially if they are very
young, has adverse effects on their physical and mental health. The speaker showed a list of
numerous individuals and companies that signed the petition to fight the lowering of criminal
responsibility in our country. As responsible citizens of the country, the audience was
encouraged to also join the petition in fighting violations against child rights and to be catalysts
of change towards a strong and safe environment for our children.
 The next speaker was the Program Head of the Bachelor of Science in Psychology,
School of Arts and Sciences Holy Angel University, Dr. Von B. Guintu.

Dr. Guintu showed the overview of his discussion – The Role of Academic Institutions in
Addressing Child Sexual Abuse. It composed of three (3) topics – Identification and Reporting,
Prevention and Management and Research to Inform Policy Making.

Dr. Guintu stated that schools should have access to the children enrolled in them and
should be experts in child development. This is because schools have the best position to identify
and report cases of child sexual abuse.

He also mentioned some challenges interfering with the identification and reporting of
child abuse cases. First is Competence. School staff especially teachers and guidance
counselors should be able to recognize child abuse and if recognized as such, should be able
to handle such cases. Second is people’s standard in recognizing abuse. Some people due to
cultural and other factors have different perspectives as to what abuse is and how can a certain
action or incident be considered as abusive. Third is the emotional difficulty in accepting
accusations. Employees have trouble reporting abuses especially of the person or people being
accused is a superior in work, a friend or a trusted co-worker/person. Fourth is the nondisclosure
of victims where in children mostly have trouble reporting abuses committed to them especially
when the perpetrators are people whom they know or recognize as trustable people. And last is
the unclear process of reporting. Even if an abuse is recognized, employees do not know the
correct process or flow of reporting so that children can be given help as soon as possible.

As a solution to all these obstacles, Dr. Guintu gave for answers. First is to develop in-
service training programs for school staff so that can be better equipped in recognizing, fighting
and preventing child abuse. Second is to create a safe environment for children. Third is to
communicate belief. Children should feel free to express who they are. And Fourth is having
guidelines or policies in dealing with child abuse.

To prevent these incidents and better manage future problems. Schools should develop
better interventions. This includes encouraging parents to talk to their children, teach them how
to respond when experiencing abuse and teach kids skills in facing abuse.

The third topic is Research to inform policy making. As mentioned before, the legal age
of sexual consent today is 12 which has no valid basis, ergo, research must be encouraged and
conducted so that our current and future policies will have valid scientific bases in policy making.
Much like the study about human brain development which as stated before starts at 16 and
ends around 25 hence raising the legal age for sexual consent should be at least 16 and not 12
years old.

The last speaker discussed the ongoing agenda of the CRN in which he encouraged us
to join in speeding up the process in making our country’s children safe. The CRN’s agenda was
compiled into an acronym – J.U.S.T.I.C.E.

The letter “J” stands for Juvenile Justice. This includes the various laws mentioned before
such as R.A. 7610 and more. CRN hopes for the strengthening of the pre-existing laws and the
future laws we will have. “U” stands for Universal Birth Registration. The speaker explained that
around the country, there are still children who are born without being able to be registered as
citizens of our country maybe due to the lack of access to governmental institutions authorized
to process birth certificates and/or the distance of some residences to urban centers.
 “S” stands for Statutory Rape. As mentioned before, CRN’s main advocacies is to raise
the legal age of sexual consent and the age by which children can file cases of rape and/or
abuse in court. The letter “T”, which was changed to a plus symbol, or the symbol of aid stands
for Positive Discipline. CRN hope in changing our current social norms when it comes to the
discipline of children.

The Letter “I” stands for Inclusive Education. In the AVP presented before, children’s right
to education must always be protected and maintained. The letter “C” stands for Child Marriage,
where in CRN hopes in removing this unjust and cruel law in our country to better protect the
rights of children. Last but not the least in the letter “E” which stands for Exploitation of Children.
CRN strives in ending child exploitation in the country.

At the end of the discussion, the speaker gave some activities that people can partake in
to join the CRN advocacy such as joining online discussion and using hashtags in social media
which includes: #Not9Not12, #NoToLoweringMACR, #ChildrenNotCriminals,
#TulongHindiKulong and #ENDChildRape.

The audience was encouraged to join online petitions against the lowering of MACR and
promoting the raising of age for Statutory Rape.

An open forum was conducted after all the discussion and participants were invited to ask
questions to the speakers. After that, the speakers were given certificates of appreciation and
then all the participants together with the speakers and organizers has a photo op and with that,
the forum officially ended.