The minimum age of sexual consent has been raised from 12 to 16 by a measure that was signed into law by Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte in an effort to shield children from rape and other sexual abuse.
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) reports that the Philippines has one of the lowest minimum ages of sexual consent in the world, behind only Nigeria's age of 11.
According to a 2015 survey conducted in partnership by UNICEF and the non-governmental organization Center for Women's Resources in the Philippines, seven out of ten victims of rape were minors.
According to the poll, one in five respondents between the ages of 13 and 17 stated they had experienced sexual violence, and one in 25 said they had been forced to have sex as a kid.
Any adult having sex with someone who is 16 or younger would be guilty of statutory rape under the gender-neutral law that Duterte supports, unless there is a three-year age gap and the intercourse was shown to be voluntary, non-abusive, and exploitative. If any of the parties engaged was younger than 13, the exemption does not apply.
Since the 1980s, proponents of raising the consent age in the Philippines have been advocating for this change. Critics argue that since predators might claim that their victims gave their permission and because minors as young as 12 can often be blackmailed or bullied into silence, the previous legislation safeguarded them.
Advocates for victims further contend that lax enforcement of current legislation, along with a low consent age, is to blame for the Philippines' high rates of adolescent pregnancies and sex trafficking, as reported by international rights groups.
