SENATE Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri hailed the approval by the bicameral conference committee of the disagreeing provisions on the measures raising the age for determining statutory rape from 12 to below 16 years of age.

Zubiri authored the Senate version of the bill.

“No one should become a victim of rape or of sexual violence, moreso our young and innocent children. So I have taken this issue as a personal advocacy—as a parent, as a Christian, and more importantly as a legislator,” Zubiri said.

“I’m very grateful to all my colleagues, particularly Sen. Sonny Angara, Sen. Risa Hontiveros, and Sen. Lito Lapid, for assisting me and trusting me to shepherd this bill through the Senate,” he added.

“I would also like to thank Sen. Richard Gordon, our chair of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights, for designating me to head the Senate bicameral panel,” he said.

Along with increasing the age of sexual consent, the bill also amends the language of the law to be gender-responsive and to reflect that rape is committed by a person who shall have carnal knowledge of another person, rather than the previous language that defines rape as being between a man and a woman.

“We are really gunning for the passage of this bill into law before this Congress ends. A lot of groups and advocates like the UNICEF have been waiting for this, so I am very happy that we are at this stage, about to conclude a very important and relevant piece of legislation towards the protection of our children,” Zubiri said.