On the President’s Veto of the Positive Discipline Bill

Child Rights Network (CRN) laments President Rodrigo Duterte’s decision to veto the “Positive and Non-Violent Discipline of Children Act.”

The decision to veto the passage of this bill is a renegation of the Philippine government’s commitment to protect children’s rights. Beating, kicking, slapping, lashing – these are all violent acts that cannot be carefully practiced nor rightly administered. We want to emphasize that violent discipline does not produce law-abiding citizens, but causes juvenile delinquency, aggression, inter-generational transfer of abuse, and even drug or alcohol abuse.

The passage of the Positive Discipline bill is in line with the Philippines’ commitment to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which the country ratified in 1990. As a State Party to the UNCRC, our government committed itself to upholding children’s rights by ensuring their safety and giving them the same amount of protection from violence as adults (UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2009).

Article 19 of the UNCRC specifically states that governments must do all they can to ensure that children are protected from all forms of violence, abuse, neglect, and bad treatment by their parents or anyone else who look after them. Furthermore, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, in its 2009 Concluding Observations on the Philippines’ 3rd and 4th periodic report, specifically recommended to enact the Anti-Corporal Punishment Bill to explicitly prohibit by law corporal punishment in all settings, including in the home, schools, alternative childcare environments, places of work and detention facilities.

No jail time for parents in the bill

The bill’s primary goal is to educate parents and caregivers on how to give responsive care and instill discipline on children without resorting to physical and humiliating punishment. There are no penal provisions in the bill that prescribes jail time to offenders. Rather, it prescribes seminars on positive discipline and anger management for those who use corporal punishment against children to educate them on alternative approaches to child discipline.

The State as the legal protector of its citizens should ensure that the human rights of its citizens particularly the most vulnerable sector – the children – are respected, protected, and fulfilled. The bill recognizes the right of parents to discipline their children, but this right does not include the right to hit and hurt them. The protection of children’s rights does not end at the family door. Inflicting violence against children is wrong and unacceptable as it is when inflicted on adults.

The bill seeks to help parents and caregivers to explore options on proper child-rearing to avoid inflicting violence against children. Multiple studies have shown not only of the long-term effect of physical and humiliating punishment on child behavior, but also the prevalence of this practice in Philippine society. It is the State’s moral obligation to equip parents and caregivers with positive and non-violent discipline methods to help their children grow up to be peaceful and responsible citizens.

Child rights advocates will continue to push for the enactment of a national law that clearly protects children from violence in all settings of our society. The veto does not spell the end for our campaign for Filipinos to choose positive discipline. We call on parents, teachers and caregivers to continually promote and practice positive and non-violent discipline and protect our children from any form of violence.

WE WILL DO WHATEVER WE CAN TO PROTECT MINORS IN THE CHURCH. YOU HEARD ME! NO HESITATIONS AND COVER-UPS!

ARCHBISHOP ROMULO VALLES CBCP president