Children having children when 14 years old, 2

BY FR. SHAY CULLEN

CHILD sexual abuse is now finally recognized as a heinous crime that causes life-long suffering and destruction of the person if not afforded therapy. Now, it is statutory rape to sexually abuse a 16-year old and younger child and that carries a life sentence. 

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which this writer was a delegate to the drafting conference held in Helsinki, Finland, called for new laws protecting children and punishing child sex abuses. Many countries have passed child protection laws and in the Philippines, 37 are on the statute books. They are implemented by just judges and the children at the Preda Foundation home for abused children win an average 18 convictions yearly. In 2022, they won 21 convictions. That is due to the powerful healing and empowering effect of Emotional Release Therapy. Most of the 80 children in care and protection are abused by a relative such as a mother in online abuse or the biological father, grandfather, or live-in partner of the mother. These are followed by pedophiles and traffickers.
The practice of sex with children has been institutionalized in some indigenous communities. Among the Aetas, a chieftain can have multiple “wives,” many of them children as revealed by the Aeta teachers that exposed the practice by a chieftain and they rescued the young child, Weng-Weng, 14. She was found “married” at 14 by Preda social and development workers that visit the villages implementing projects to help the Aeta indigenous people to better themselves. She was given,like a piece of property, to a 27-year old for two piglets and half a cavan or 25 kilos of rice. That was one of many deals made by families in remote indigenous villages in Zambales over the years, we are told by social workers. Weng-Weng was pregnant, at 14 years old, a child having a child by custom ignored by the authorities. She was rescued, taken into care, had her baby and started studying. That is her life-long dream.
The new law Republic Act No. 11596, banning every arrangement called “child marriage” became law in December 2022. “The issue of child early and forced marriages is…a tragic reality for scores of young girls who are forced…. to shelve their own dreams, begin families they are not ready for, and raise children even if their own childhoods have not yet ended,” said Senator Risa Hontiveros, the bill’s author and sponsor, after the vote. 

The arrangement of so-called “child marriage” was in fact legalized pedophilia and human trafficking. The government and society and the church has silently condoned this practice for centuries. In the Philippines the age of consent for sexual intercourse was 12 until 2022.The law was changed by the persistent lobbying of child rights groups. In the United States, laws still allow men to have sex with children lawfully. In 40 states “marriage with a minor is allowed provided there is parental or judicial consent and approval. 

So enough money can buy a “child bride.” In this regard, the Philippines is now a more advanced nation but only since 2022. 
May we unite to give children a life free from abuse and exploitation and with freedom and education, justice and happiness. (preda.org)/PN