The salient elements of this provision highlights the importance of including close-in age exemptions:
4. Making the case for including close-in age exemptions The close-in age exemption means that the law will allow sexual acts with minors under the age of consent if their peer is close in age to them. This exemption is created to protect young people from the harsh consequences of violating the age of consent law such as being labelled as a sex offender simply for having consensual sex with their peer. 23
REMOVING THE CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY FROM BOTH PARTNERS: This factor avoids overcriminalization of adolescent sexual behavior. Since both policy proposals include ages above the MACR, the exemption will ensure that adolescents above the minimum age of criminal responsibility (15 years old) will not be criminally liable for engaging in consensual, non-exploitative and non-abusive sex with fellow adolescents. Although both discernment related to criminal responsibility and consent to sex involve the understanding of possible consequences, the former deals with internal decisions with oneself while the latter involves another person. Discernment deals with legal capacity to act and not legal capacity to consent because consent implies being asked to make a decision by someone else. AGE DIFFERENCE: The specification of four years to include the age range of 14 to under 18 years old recognizes the reality of adolescent sexual behavior wherein the age of sexual initiation among Filipino youth is at a median age of 17.8 for males and 18.2 for females. 24 The age difference should not be too wide to include ages of children wherein they cannot consent due to developmental immaturity, such as below 13 years old. SEXUAL ACT IS PROVEN TO BE CONSENSUAL, NON-EXPLOITATIVE, AND NON-ABUSIVE: This qualifying condition emphasizes that any unwanted sexual act regardless of the ages of victims will still be considered as an offence yet consensual acts between close-in age partners will not be penalized.The rationale for consent is mediated by the lack of power imbalances that are inherently present in adult-child sexual relations that make children more vulnerable to exploitation and coercion and considers the consent by given in these situations to be constrained.
This exemption also protects young people from becoming victims of false accusations from parents of their partners who want to file cases of statutory rape against them for defiling their child’s innocence and reputation.
21 Interview with Dr. Sylvia Estrada-Claudio, MD., PhD 22 https://www.preda.org/the-philippine-age-of-consent-12- years-old/ 23 https://www.ageofconsent.net/close-in-age-exemptions 24 Young Adult Fertility Survey 4
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