BY FR. SHAY CULLEN
EVERY time I sit in a Philippine family court with the Preda social workers and the children who are testifying against their sexual abusers, I see the many children and parents or guardians waiting to have their cases heard by the judge.
Many other family-related cases come under the jurisdiction of the Family Court established by law (RA 9184) such as adoption, reconciliation of spouses, family controversy, petitions for guardianship, custody of children and habeas corpus cases. There are petitions for declaration of status of children as abandoned, dependent or neglected children and so on.
Besides all these cases, the court deals with all cases of children in conflict with the law. Many are children in violation of the dangerous drugs act and all cases of sexual abuse of minors. Besides all this, the Family Court Law says the family court judge is the inspector of the government homes for the detention of minors. Family court judges are over-loaded, over-worked and some say under-paid. It must change.
The most important and grievous cases of all are child sexual abuse and crimes of human trafficking of children. These cases take a very long time to be heard, tried and decided by some courts with heavy workloads.
Judges, it seems, are stressed by the big number of cases. They are meticulous in hearing evidence, retaining knowledge of the case details and conducting due diligence in summing up and writing the decisions. There are sometimes decisions as long as 15 to 20 pages. This is rightly so since a conviction for child rape means life in prison for the accused if found guilty of this heinous crime and many are convicted.
There are many more child rape cases coming before the family courts because of extensive child rights advocacy and 37 laws protecting children and an increase in reporting of abuse. Victims and their relatives are now realizing that justice is to be had by dedicated judges.
More cases will be reaching the Family Courts with the passing in March 2022 of the law increasing the age of sexual consent. The sexual molestation of a child 16 years and below is now statuary rape.
Until 2022, the age of consent was 12 years old. Many victims were forced to testify that she “loved” him, that she “wanted it.” The abuser walked free to continue the abuse. That’s how the Philippine congress, made up of mostly male representatives, wanted it from 1935 until 2022. With 28 percent female representatives at present, new child protection laws have been passed.
The Philippines needs a law establishing a “Children’s Court.” With greater trust in the judicial system, more cases are being filed and tried ending in more convictions.
However, thousands of child rape cases are still not reported. It is now very important to have a new law to establish a Children’s Court to unburden the hard-working family court judges.
This will be a court with experienced, highly-trained judges where only child abuse cases will be heard continuously without delay and no postponements. (To be continued)/PN
