FILIPINOS are known to celebrate many milestones in life, most especially marriages. But the passage of the law prohibiting the practice of child marriage last year apparently was no longer able to prevent the marriage—legally dubious—of 51 girls and boys under 15 years old who tied the knot in 2020, according to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority .
“Those marriages should not have been allowed from the beginning, but civil registrars have been turning a blind eye because there was no punishment,” Undersecretary for Population and Development Juan A. Perez III told the. “With the law, those are now illegal acts. Child marriages covered by the law cover both male and female children.”
A total of 2,526 or 1 percent were married in 2020, a contraction of 53.9 percent from 2019, reaching 5,479 or 1.3 percent of the total. More than half or 5,746 representing 54.8 percent of teenage females married men in ages 20-24, and two out of 10 or 2,387 or 22.8 percent married men aged 25-29 years.
Last year, the bicameral conference committee report approved a measure that increases the statutory rape age to 16 from 12, which is considered the lowest in Asia and one of the lowest in the world. This other pandemic is the unplanned and unintended pregnancies due to abuse, early marriage and cohabitation of adult males, all of which may be deterred by the new law.
He stated further that RA 11596 is a strategic policy measure supportive of the Social Protection Program for Adolescent Mothers and their Children , which Popcom and the Department of Social Welfare and Development are mandated to develop and implement under the 2021 and 2022 General Appropriations Act.
Meanwhile, the pandemic cast a dark cloud over marriages in April and May in 2020 as the government imposed its strict lockdowns to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Among intermarriages with foreign nationals, a total of 4,500 Filipino women or 93 percent married non-Filipino men, while 337 or 7 percent of Filipino men married women of foreign nationals.
legally dubious—of 51 girls and boys under 15 years old who tied the knot in 2020, according to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
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