Bill vs corporal punishment vetoed by President
Credit to Author: CATHERINE S. VALENTE, TMT| Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2019 16:17:23 +0000
PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has vetoed a measure prohibiting parents from using corporal punishment on children, saying the Philippines should not follow the trend of Western countries that have shunned it.
Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea and former special assistant to the President Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go confirmed that Duterte vetoed the consolidated Senate Bill 1477 and House Bill 8239, in a two-page letter sent to the Senate and the House of Representatives.
In his message dated February 23, Duterte said that while he agreed that children should be protected from humiliating forms of punishments, he did not share the view that the scope of the measure should include the households.
“I believe as much as Congress does that every children should be protected from humiliating forms of punishment. To the extent that this bill would enable the State to put a stop to such forms of punishment, it is a salutary piece of legislation,” Duterte said.
“However, I am gravely concerned that the bill goes much further than this as it would proscribe all forms of corporal punishment, humiliating or not, including those done within the confines of the family home. I do not share such an overly sweeping condemnation of the practice,” he added.
The President said he believed that responsible parents could administer corporal punishment in a self-restrained manner that the child would remember it as a form of love and discipline, not as hatred and abuse. “Such manner of undertaking corporal punishment has given rise to beneficial results for society, with countless children having been raised up to become law-abiding citizens with a healthy respect for authority structures in the wider community,” Duterte said.
“Regrettably, this bill places such responsible disciplining of children in the same category as humiliating and degrading forms of punishment, and condemns them all in one broad stroke,” he added.
Duterte also said that the measure would have allowed the government to breach a family’s privacy.
“In so doing, the bill transgresses the proper boundaries of State intervention in the life of the family, the sanctity and autonomy of which is recognized by the Constitution,” he said.
The President then mentioned that the Philippines should resist Western views on corporal punishment.
“The cultural trends of other countries are not necessarily healthy for our own nation. Indeed, in many instances such trends are of doubtful benefit even for the very countries which originated and popularized them. To uncritically follow the lead of these countries, especially in matters as significant as the family, would be a great disservice to the succeeding generations,” he added.
In a statement, former special assistant to the President Christopher Lawrence Go backed Duterte for vetoing the proposed law, saying the President had “valid reasons” for doing so.
A 2011 survey of Pulse Asia showed that two in three Filipino parents resorted to corporal punishment to discipline children 16 years old and below.
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