House bill penalizes spanking kids

As a kid I grow up and experienced spanking as part of the discipline. I could still remember when Lolo (grandpa) would whip us with long guava stick together with my siblings. Now we have this law that prohibits us (as parent) to discipline our kids. . .

By Philip Tubeza
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 17:56:00 03/22/2009

Filed Under: Legislation, Children

MANILA, Philippines -- A House committee has approved in principle a bill that would make it a crime for anybody to ridicule or even pinch errant children.

The House committees on revision of laws and the welfare of children, chaired by Representatives Giorgidi B. Aggabao (4th District, Isabela) and Monica Prieto-Teodoro (1st District, Tarlac) respectively, have approved in principle a bill penalizing corporal punishment for children.

House Bill 682, authored by Prieto-Teodoro, prohibits “all corporal punishment and all other forms of humiliating or degrading punishment of children in homes, schools and other places.”

She said the bill defined the crime “as a punishment or penalty for an offense or imagined offense, acts carried out for the purpose of discipline, training or control, inflicted by an adult who has been given or has assumed authority or responsibility for punishment or discipline.”

“As a lawmaker and as parent, I cannot imagine hitting children as lawful while we believe it is against the law to hit other adults, prisoners, and even animals,” Prieto-Teodoro said in a statement.

Aggabao said children should not be “slapped, kicked, burned, choked, beaten, pinched, whipped, have their ears twisted, threatened, terrorized, ridiculed, cursed, and belittled because they behaved badly, disobeyed their parents or the authorities, failed to perform tasks or chores to the satisfaction of adults or because they did not listen to what the adults tell them.”