House panel OKs bill penalizing use of corporal punishment against children

MANILA, Philippines — The House committee on welfare of children greenlighted on Tuesday a consolidated bill banning the use of corporal punishment to discipline children — a measure that lawmakers and child rights advocates hope would deter incidents of child abuse within homes.

According to House Bill 8306 and House Bill 1269, any individual — such as parents or guardians — can be penalized for exacting corporal and/or humiliating or degrading punishment on children as a form of discipline.

The measure reintroduces a similar version of the bill that passed final reading at the House of Representatives during the 17th Congress.  

Panel deliberations on the bill focused on a clear definition of child abuse. According to the two measures, physical, humiliating or degrading acts as a form of punishment refer to “any form of punishment or discipline in which physical force is used and intended to cause pain or discomfort or any nonphysical act that causes a child to feel belittled, denigrated, threatened, or ridiculed.”

According to the explanatory note of House Bill 1269, the proposed prohibited acts to discipline children are the following: 

• forcing the minor to kneel on stones, salt or pebbles; 
• squatting; 
• public humiliation; 
• deliberate neglect of child's physical needs; 
• exposure to substances that can cause discomfort; and 
• imposing tasks that the minor is incapable of doing such as forcing to skip sleep and verbal assaults.

Under the bill, persons who witness the physical, humiliating, or degrading punishment of a child can report the incident to the barangay or the police. The police will then inform the barangay and may involve a healthcare provider if necessary.

The measure also requires the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Department of Interior and Local Government to train service providers, develop educational materials and promotional items, provide parenting education on positive discipline, establish child-friendly reporting methods.

Government agencies are also required to offer child protection and support services, and implement documentation, data management, and monitoring systems. 

Rep. Angelica Natasha Co (Bagong Henerasyon Partylist), chairperson of the House committee on the welfare of children, said that parents just need support to “shift away from using physical and psychological punishment in disciplining their children.”  

Meanwhile, Rep. Bernadette Herrera-Dy (Bagong Henerasyon Partylist), one of the bill’s co-authors, said the measure is meant to safeguard children “from abusive parents” and give the local police force and barangay responders “the clear basis to intervene when the children are in danger or at risk.”

The proposed measure is a “more holistic and inclusive approach” to promoting “positive parenting” among parents and caregivers.

“It does not impose a hard and fast manner of managing households, but instead seeks to help parents and caregivers in exploring options for proper child-rearing to avoid inflicting violence against children,” said Allan Nuñez of ChildFund Philippines, a development organization advocating for children’s welfare.

The Philippine government's 2016 National Baseline Study on Violence Against Children revealed that three out of five children in the country experience physical violence, mainly at home. 

The study also found that three out of five children endure psychological violence, such as verbal abuse, threats and the fear of being abandoned by their parents.