THE SENATE has ratified the Bicameral Conference Committee report on the disagreeing provisions of the measure raising the age of consent from 12 to 16 years old.

During the last session day before the Christmas break, the senators approved the bicam report on Senate Bill 2332 and House Bill 7836 amending the Revised Penal Code.

“I am very grateful to Sen. Richard Gordon, chairman of the Committee on Justice, for entrusting me to co-chair the Senate bicam panel and see it through the bicam conference,” Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, co-sponsor of the bill and co-chair of the Senate panel for the Bicameral Conference Committee, said.

“Many thanks also to the members of the Senate bicam panel for their valuable inputs and support of this bill, Sen. Sonny Angara, Sen. Lito Lapid and Sen. Risa Hontiveros,” Zubiri added.

“For the longest time, we have had the shameful distinction of being one of the countries with the lowest age of sexual consent in the world,” he said.

Only Niger has a lower age of consent at eleven years old.

“As a parent of three young kids,talagang nakakalungkot at nakakagalit na maisip na hindi protektado ng batas ang napakaraming bata mula sa statutory rape. At thirteen, fourteen years old, wala pa silang kakayanan na magbigay ng informed sexual consent, kaya responsibilidad natin bilang magulang at mambabatas na protektahan sila mula sa mga nananamantala ng kanilang pagiging inosente,” he added.

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

This similarly affects the qualified seduction, simple seduction, child prostitution and child trafficking clauses in the Revised Penal Code, raising the age of the victims from 12 to under 16.

Apart from raising the age for statutory rape, the bill also amends the language of the law to be more gender-responsive, defining rape as an act.