SENATE Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri is confident that the law raising the age of sexual consent will reduce teenage pregnacies.

“With this law, we will be definitively drawing a line that adults cannot cross. They cannot say a kid below sixteen gave them consent. That is statutory rape, plain and simple. And victims and their families will no longer have to prove that they were coerced. The onus will fall completely on the perpetrator,” Zubiri said.

“Along with protecting our children, we are also hoping that this law will lessen instances of teenage pregnancy,” he added.

“I know this has been long-awaited by many families and child rights advocates, and as a parent to three young kids myself, I was really adamant that we get this out for the President’s signature this Congress,” said Zubiri, author and co-sponsor of the law.

The senator maintained that children below 16 “cannot make informed decisions about sex yet, especially sex with adults.”

“So this is a really important law that will protect our kids from malicious individuals who intend to take advantage of them,” he said.

The law specifies that rape occurs when the offended party is under sixteen years of age.

It defines rape as an act committed by a person against another person, instead of the previous definition that specifies rape to be between a man and a woman.