Mothers can be charged for violence against kids

MANILA, Philippines — The Supreme Court (SC) has issued a landmark ruling against abusive mothers, allowing fathers to file charges on behalf of minor children against the mothers using the Anti-Violence against Women and their Children (VAWC) Act, which was drafted to address the prevalence of violence against women and their children.

In an 18-page decision promulgated on July 12 last year but published only this Feb. 6,  SC Justice Mario Lopez ruled that while VAWC excludes men as victims, it does not necessarily deny a father of remedies solely because of his gender or because he is not a “woman victim of violence.”

Lopez’s ruling stemmed from a case of a father, on behalf of his minor daughter, filed before a Taguig City Regional Trial Court (RTC) on Dec. 7, 2017 for violation of Republic Act 9262, or the VAWC.

The father alleged that his wife abused their daughter – a petition the Taguig RTC denied on Jan. 10, 2018 as it emphasized that protection and custody orders in that law cannot be issued against a mother and that the remedies are not available to him as he is not a “woman victim of violence.”

It cited a ruling, which stated that a protection order cannot be issued in favor of a husband against his wife.

But the SC, in the father’s petition for certiorari, ruled otherwise as it set aside the decision and ordered the lower court to issue a permanent protection order in favor of the father. The father alleged in this petition that the RTC committed grave abuse of discretion when it dismissed the application for protection and custody order.

In deciding the case, the SC said that RA 9262 allows the father of the offended party to apply for protection and custody order of the minor children who are experiencing violence and abuse, and that the law covers a situation where the mother committed violent and abusive acts against her own child.

“Logically, a mother who maltreated her child resulting in physical, sexual, or psychological violence defined and penalized under RA No. 9262 is not absolved from criminal liability notwithstanding that the measure is intended to protect both women and their children,” the SC said.

“The court finds no substantial distinction between fathers and mothers who abused their children that warrants a different treatment or exemption from the law. Any violence is reprehensible and harmful to the child’s dignity and development,” it added.

It also emphasized that it cannot be an “instrument of injustice and public mischief perpetrated against vulnerable sectors” such as the children victims of violence and noted that it will “not shirk its bounden duty to interpret the law in keeping with the cardinal principle that in enacting a statute, the legislature intended right and justice to prevail.”