DAVAO CITY, Philippines – The Philippine Commission on Women on Tuesday has called for amendments to the existing Anti-Rape Law of 1997.
PCW Executive Director Emmeline Versoza said necessary amendments to the legal of definition of rape have to be made, especially in accordance to the suggestions made by the Committee on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.
She said amendments to Republic Act 8353, or the rape law, was prompted by the numerous cases of rape, with the Philippine Statistics Authority saying that 28 persons were raped everyday in 2015.
In particular, Versoza wanted to put “the lack of consent” as the center of the definition of rape.
“We’ve seen a lot of cases of date rape where the rapists had been acquitted. we have two celebrated cases actually which have reached CEDAW, the expert body in Geneva. they found us to have grave violations because the judges acquitted the rapists because [of the word] “date.”
Versoza said if a woman declines to give her consent, then that should be the sole basis of rape, and not the signs of struggle.
“The definition should say that if a woman says no, then no it is. She should not be required to have run away, or [her private parts] torn, or bleeding, [in short] struggled. Usually when that happens, the women just freeze and don’t know what to do. That should be the center of rape,” Versoza said.
Versoza also brought the issue of the statutory rape in the Philippines. Versoza said the age of consent, currently 12 in the Philippines should be raised to at least 16.
The age of consent is the minimum age at which an individual can give consent to sexual activity.
Versoza said 12-year old is “still a child,” and raising the age of consent would mean higher personalities for the offender.
“Below 16 is still a child. Wala pa siyang sense of consent or discernment,” Versoza said.
Versoza said the PCW is also planning to revise, if not remove the “forgiveness clause,” a portion of the anti-rape law that in the case of married couples, can absolve the husband of the crime if the wife pardons him.
Versoza is referring to Article 266-C, or the Effect of Pardon, of the said law, which say that “in case it is the legal husband who is the offender, the subsequent forgiveness by the wife as the offended party shall extinguish the criminal action or the penalty.”
“Current Anti-rape law, RA 8353 includes marital rape. It doesn’t mean that if you are married, and your husband wants to have sex and you don’t want to, he can force himself in you. However, the current rape [law] says if there is forgiveness, mawawalang bahala (it will be disregarded),” Versoza said.
“The CEDAW committee has also been recommending that the state, because we are signatories to this international human rights treaty, to look into the forgiveness clause,” Versoza added. (davaotoday.com)
