TO BETTER protect the youth, Isabela Rep. Faustino Dy V filed a measure that seeks to prohibit minors from getting access to alcohol.

House Bill 3706 or the proposed Anti-Underage Drinking Act also aims to penalize establishments that will sell alcohol to minors.

In his explanatory note, the lawmaker said Filipinos are the second biggest consumers of alcoholic beverages in Southeast Asia with five percent of the population considered regular alcohol consumers.

“The data also showed that 39 percent are occasional consumers and more alarmingly, around 60 percent of minors have already tried drinking alcoholic beverages before they even reached the legal drinking age of 18,” Dy said.

House Bill 3706 prohibits consumption of alcohol by a minor; sale of alcohol by any establishment to a minor; purchasing or obtaining alcohol for a minor; causing a minor to purchase alcohol; age misrepresentation and selling, giving, or otherwise providing alcohol to minors by an establishment which is licensed to sell alcohol.

Minors who will violate any provisions of the proposed law shall be required to render community service.

Establishments that will violate the law face a fine of P10,000 for the first offense and P50,000 for the second offense and the possible suspension or revocation of their license.

The measure mandates the establishment of an interagency committee headed by the Department of Social Welfare and Development in coordination with the Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Health, Department of Education, Commission on Higher Education, National Youth Commission and the Department of the Interior and Local Government.