Duterte vetoes bill seeking to prohibit corporal punishment on kids

FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte delivers his speech during the 1st National Assembly of the Liga ng mga Barangay sa Pilipinas at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City on February 25, 2019. RICHARD MADELO/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

President Rodrigo Duterte has vetoed a measure that seeks to prohibit parents from doing all forms of physical and mental abuse to their children.

Duterte vetoed the enrolled bill entitled “An Act Promoting Positive and Nonviolent Discipline, Protecting Children from Physical, Humiliating, or Degrading Acts as a Form of Punishment,” last Saturday but the Palace only released a copy of Duterte’s veto message on Thursday, February 28, after Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea confirmed the rejection to reporters.

In his message, the President said he does not share “an overly sweeping condemnation” of subjecting children to corporal punishment.

He believes that responsible parents can punish their kids in a way that they will remember it as a “loving act of discipline that desires only to uphold their welfare” and not as an act of hate or 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.

The Chief Executive also believes that the Philippines should resist the growing trend in Western nations where “all forms of corporal punishment are viewed as an outdated form of disciplining children.”

In many instances, Duterte said that “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 continued.

Under the bill, parents are prohibited to beat, kick, slap, and lash on any part of their child’s body, with or without using instruments such as broom, cane, whip, or belt.

Verbal abuses like intimidation or threat, swearing or cursing, and ridiculing or denigrating a child or making them look “foolish” in front of their peers or the public are also not allowed.

Senator Risa Hontiveros earlier said the bill which she sponsors seeks to develop a comprehensive program that will provide parenting tools and learning resources “in employing a positive and non-violent way of disciplining children” to the parents and those who exercise parental authority over children.

“This bill aims to set the standards of behavior to use non-violent means of discipline and help parents utilize positive discipline instead of punishments,” she explained.