The Age of Consent Remains As Is

The revised and revamped National Gender Policy also includes provisions that look toward the strengthening of laws that protect minors from being exploited. However, Minister of Human Development, Dolores Balderamos-Garcia, says that as society continues evolving and children become exposed to sexuality at a younger age than before, it would be nonsensical to raise the age of consent. 

Dolores Balderamos Garcia, Minister of Human Development: “That may have been the way in those days but I want to believe that the world has developed, people have more education. We know what is good for children and a fourteen year old girl is a child. You don’t become an adult until you’re eighteen so I would like to believe that our societies are evolving and I think evolving for the better because again a fourteen year old is not an adult and I think that we have to make sure that we protect our children right up until the time when they can fend for themselves. Now touching a little controversial issue, the age of consent to sexual activity is sixteen even though you’re an adult at eighteen. Now the reason we don’t want to touch that is that we understand that teenagers from young they want to experiment with their sexuality, they want to see how the future will come for them so it doesn’t make sense as a community to legislate something that you can’t police.”