Veto of corporal punishment bill: A nod to parental rights

Credit to Author: The Manila Times| Date: Sat, 02 Mar 2019 16:46:38 +0000

IN VETOING the bill that would have entirely banned corporal punishment on children, President Rodrigo Duterte has upheld long-standing parental rights and autonomy, as well as checked the tendencies of some politicians to ape Western practices and ideologies.

The veto means the well-defined limits to state intervention in family life are preserved. As we pointed out in this space last year, the measure, championed by the likes of “social activist” Sen. Risa Hontiveros, was unnecessarily intrusive and would have upset the prevailing balance between state and parental roles in the upbringing of children.

In his February 23 veto message, Duterte wrote that while he agreed that children should be protected from humiliating forms of punishments, he did not share the view that the measure should apply to households. Parents, he pointed out, could administer corporal punishment in a self-restrained manner, in which the child would eventually 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 wrote.

The bill sought a ban on any form of punishment or discipline using physical force and intended to cause pain or discomfort, or any nonphysical act that causes a child to feel belittled, denigrated, threatened or ridiculed. In the first and second offenses, there was to be a written citation by the barangay or village chairman, or his or her representative, to be given to the parent, guardian or the adult concerned to “desist, stop and refrain” from using corporal punishment. It was as if parenting was like implementing road traffic rules.

It would have required a “mediation and reconciliation meeting” between warring parents and children, exposing family affairs to the entire village. Parents were to be sent to what is essentially a reeducation seminar, to tell them how to parent their own children. A third offense would have allowed village officials to initiate a complaint for child abuse.

The measure would have allowed the government to breach a family’s privacy. Not only did Duterte prevent that from happening. He went a step further and said the Philippines should resist seeing all forms of corporal punishment as outdated, as is the traditional view in some Western nations.

“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.

Let this veto put lawmakers on notice that they should not simply use the coercive power of the law to impose their personal ideologies on the public. Instead, Filipino lawmakers must uphold the positive aspects of disciplining our children the way our own culture of parenting has produced good, considerate law-abiding and productive citizens.

This statement, of course, is not made in reckless disregard of the reality of some brutal acts of punishment against errant children committed by adult members of their families.

There are other laws already in place that cover such offenses. Republic Act (RA) 7610, for one, provides for stronger deterrence and special protection against child abuse, exploitation and discrimination, imposing penalties for its violation and for other purposes. Another law, RA 9262, protects women and children against violence and prescribes penalties for violations of this Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act of 2004.

We don’t need another law that has not considered the full ramifications of having the state take away the parenting rights of parents over their own children.

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