Press Release
December 3, 2018

SPEECH OF AKBAYAN SENATOR RISA HONTIVEROS ON THE SENATE'S
RATIFICATION OF THE POSITIVE DISCIPLINE ACT

Mr. President, honored colleagues.

It is my honor to submit to this honorable chamber the Bicameral Conference Committee Report on the disagreeing provisions of Senate Bill No. 1477 and House Bill No. 8239, on the positive and nonviolent discipline of children.

With the agreed version between the Senate and House panels, we seek to protect children from all forms of physical and mental abuse, and injury, maltreatment or exploitation as they are used in the context of discipline.

Mr. President, it is in this light that I would like to move that the entire joint explanatory statement of the Bicameral Conference Committee be put into the records. May I present some of its important features:

1. It recognizes and upholds the right of children as human beings to equal protection of the law, and ensures their protection from all forms of physical and mental violence;

2. It promotes positive and nonviolent discipline of children at home, in schools, in workplaces, and alternative care systems by encouraging behavior change in adults which shall be complemented with the necessary structural support such as social programs that will provide necessary support for the child, parents, and other child caregivers;

3. It respects the responsibilities, rights and duties of parents and other persons responsible for the child, and provides support and an enabling environment for parents to fulfill their parental responsibilities in a manner consistent with the evolving capacities of children;

4. It ensures the observance of international standards of child protection, especially those found in international conventions and treaties to which the Philippines is a party to.

Mr. President, with the ratification of this Bicameral Report we look forward to raising our children in a manner that is both loving and caring, as it is nonviolent.

Maraming salamat, Mr. President.

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