The bill would have banned physical, humiliating, or degrading acts of punishment or discipline by parents or teachers on children. “There is a cultural norm in the Philippines that we can hit children in order to discipline them. That’s what we wanted changed with this bill,” Dy said. Last month parliament passed a controversial bill lowering the minimum age of criminal liability to 12, among measures sought by Duterte to further extend his deadly crackdown on drugs and crime. However, the Senate has yet to pass the bill, which has been criticised by the United Nations and rights monitorsRead full story

Source: The Express Tribune February 28, 2019 15:45 UTC