The Philippines have significantly changed its sex-related laws by increasing the age of sexual consent.
The new bill, which President Rodrigo Duterte signed into law on Monday, will raise the minimum age of sexual consent from 12 to 16 in an attempt to protect children from sexual predators.
“The passage of this legislation is an essential step toward fulfilling children’s rights to protection from sexual violence, abuse and exploitation,” UNICEF said in a statement, “regardless of their sex, orientation, and gender identity and expression.”
Anyone found to have had sexual intercourse with someone 16 or younger will be guilty of “statutory rape,” unless both parties claim to be romantically involved and the age gap is less than three years, according to the law.
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The law also closes several loopholes in the Philippines Revised Penal Code, which lawmakers wrote 90 years ago, Romeo Dongeto, convenor of the Philippine-based Child Rights Network, told the South China Morning Post. These loopholes allowed pedophiles to allege that the child had consented. The law also stripped an exemption in which an accused pedophile could have any claims of statutory rape forgiven if the victim agrees to marry them.
The Philippines was one of the nations with the lowest age of sexual consent. The only nation with a lower age of sexual consent was Nigeria, at age 11.
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The old law contributed to a significant increase in child rape, the United Nations agency said. A joint 2015 study by UNICEF and the Center for Women’s Resources found that 7 in 10 rape victims in the Philippines were minors. The study also found that 1 in 5 children ages 13-17 reported experiencing sexual violence.
