MANILA – Refusing to sign the “Anti-Palo Bill” into law, President Rodrigo Duterte said parents can impose corporal punishment on children but in a restrained manner.
In his veto message to Congress, Duterte said restrained corporal punishment has beneficial results. “Countless children hav(e) been raised to become law-abiding citizens with a healthy respect for authority structures in the wider community,” he stressed.
The “Anti-Palo Bill” sought to promote “positive and non-violent discipline” and to protect children from physical, humiliating or degrading acts as a form of punishment.
Among the acts prohibited by the bill, which was proposed by Sen. Risa Hontiveros, included kicking, beating and slapping, and non-physical forms of violence like embarrassing a child in public and cursing.
“I believe as much as Congress does that every child should be protected from humiliating forms of punishment. It is a salutary piece of legislation,” said President Duterte.
However, according to the President, “I am gravely concerned that the bill goes much further than this act as it would proscribe all forms of corporal punishment, humiliating or not, including those done within the confines of the family home. I do not share such an overly sweeping condemnation of the practice.”
Duterte added that the proposed law would allow government to extend its reach into the privacy of the family, authorizing measures aimed at suppressing corporal punishment regardless of how carefully it is practiced.
The President also warned that the bill would transgress the proper boundaries of state intervention in the life of the family, whose sanctity and autonomy are recognized by the Constitution.
“I strongly believe that we should resist this trend in favor of a more balanced and nuanced approach, one that is both protective of the child as well as cognizant of the prerogatives of devoted parents who believe in the merits of corporal punishment rightly administered,” Duterte said.
To “uncritically follow” the lead of other countries, especially in matters as significant as the family, would be a great disservice to the succeeding generations, he stressed./PN
