Lottie Marie C.

Gavasan December 6, 2018

2017 - 00065
The Age of Consent: A Study of Decision-Making Ability of Young Victims Regarding
Rape Cases in the Philippines

On 1987, a young child died because of a cervix infection due to a vibrator inserted inside
of her for a span of seven months. Rosario Baluyot, the young victim, was allegedly abused and
raped by Dr. Heinrich Ritter in exchange of 200 to 300 pesos (Rodriguez, 2015).
For a brief background regarding the definition of rape in the Philippines, a case, according
to the Revised Penal Code of 1987, is only considered rape if one or more of the following
conditions is or are applied: (1) if the act is forced or intimidation was used, (2) when the victim
is unconscious or deprived of reason, and (3) if the victim is twelve years of age or below.
Unfortunately, Rosario, as an abandoned child growing up fending and surviving by herself, does
not have papers showing her real age or date of birth which invalidates the third condition.
Jumping into the Supreme Court’s decision, it concluded that there was not enough
evidence linking Ritter as the cause of Rosario’s death as there was no concrete evidence pointing
out that Rosario was either forced or unconscious. With that conclusion, it shows that the
Philippines have people like Ritter, also known as pedophiles, are kept safe by the law while
children like Rosario, whom are deprived with money and power, are being continually abused
due to having insufficient amount of papers and analysis proving that she is 12 years old or less.
In addition, The Department of Health pointed out that in the year 2012, children 13 to 15 years
of age are reported as “most recorded victims of sexual abuse”. 1
After presenting the case above, it shows that having the third condition in the Revised
Penal Code of 1987 has a major issue with regards to the age scope as young victims are being
abused just because they are older than twelve years old. Is it still ethical to keep the third condition
knowing that there are still a lot of young children being sexually abused and harassed or is it time
to raise the age of consent to protect these young lives and let them have their freedom to explore
things while knowing that they are safe under the law until they are able to fend for themselves as
adults in the future? After being aware of such cruelty and injustice happening in the Philippines,
I present the case of raising the age of consent from twelve years of age and below to eighteen
years of age and below.

I. Age of Consent under Ethics of Care and Categorical Imperative

A. The View of Child Rape Cases under Ethics of Care
According to Nel Noddings, the relationship of individuals under the ethics
of care can be divided as the “one-caring” and the “cared for” where the “one-
caring” shall exhibit their commitment to help. The “one-caring” should consider

1
Rodriguez, F. (n.d.). Remembering the rape of Rosario Baluyot. Retrieved December 04, 2018, from
https://www.rappler.com/move-ph/ispeak/60590-rosario-baluyot-philippines-rape
 the point of view, the needs, and the expectations of the “cared for” providing them
the best quality of care.2
To expound the definition of Ethics of Care and the actions that should be
done, According to Tronto and Bernis Fischer, they defined care as “a species of
activity that includes everything we do to maintain, contain, and repair our ‘world’
so that we can live in it as well as a possible.” And Ethics of care may be applied
by having these four qualities.3
1. Attentiveness or the state of being inclined to the needs of the care receiver
2. Responsibility or the degree on how willing a person to provide and react
to the one in need
3. Competence or the ability to provide quality care
4. Responsiveness or the consideration of the receiver’s perspective and the
possibility of abuse

After providing a brief background on ethics of care, let us now dive in to

the child rape cases in the Philippines and apply ethics of care in it. As stated, there
is a problem with how we allow rape, sexual abuse, or sexual harassment to happen
to children thirteen to eighteen years of age as they are not able to provide care for
themselves fully and they are not completely aware of the potential danger they
may encounter in the real world. With the fact that in 2012, young children ages
thirteen to fifteen undergone sexual abuse and they still went to court to justify that
they were sexually violated and as a person looking at the lens of ethics or care, I
must say that our law does not provide the necessary care for these children with
regards to their psychological and emotional side. There is a gap on how our law
see that these children are still not capable to defend themselves during these
encounters and being older than twelve years old, make them good victims for these
abuses.
Applying the said four qualities to claim that we care for a person,
particularly the young victims of rape in the Philippines, I will be presenting a table
of the four qualities and comparing them to the current happenings and what should
be done to counter this ethical dilemma:
Four qualities Current Happenings What should be done
1 Attentiveness The Philippines is more The Philippines should
focused on dealing with raise its awareness about
war on drugs rather than the current trend of child
the rape cases happening rape cases mostly of
to young children. children of thirteen to
fifteen years of age.

2
Dunn, C. P., & Burton, B. K. (2017, June 19). Ethics of care. Retrieved December 05, 2018, from
https://www.britannica.com/topic/ethics-of-care
3
Sander-Staudt, M. (n.d.). Care Ethics. Retrieved December 05, 2018, from https://www.iep.utm.edu/care-
eth/?fbclid=IwAR2IgV1FNEiJjwG9fVdELzdka0a910c7yjtZjIzoZQxEYy9sGvWadjYvH-0#H2
 2 Responsibility The Philippines is still in
the process of considering
raising the age of consent
to eighteen years old
which only started this
year.
3 Competence The current age of
consent is twelve years
old which is one of the
lowest worldwide.
4 Responsiveness Children ages twelve to
eighteen years of age
undergone trials to prove
that they are sexually
assaulted by another
individual causing
emotional and
psychological damage to
the child.
The Philippines having
one of the lowest age of
consent should focus on
providing safety to these
young victims while
waiting the approval for
the raise of age of consent
or quicken the process of
these hearings.
The average age of consent
is sixteen years old
worldwide and to provide
the best quality of care, it
must be raised to sixteen or
more years of age.
Children ages twelve to
eighteen years old are still
not able to decide for
themselves mostly when it
comes to sexual consent as
they are still studying and
should be under the care of
their family. They should
be given proper guidance
and protection under the
law.

To summarize, the age of consent is needed to be raised to be able to counter

the sexual abuses or rape experienced by children thirteen to eighteen years of age.
Applying the ethics of care demands us to show concern to these young people and
provide them protection and guidance against pedophiles and sexual offenders
while they are not still able to defend themselves from them. The age of consent is
utmost important to provide the child a chance to grow and develop as a being
without undergoing stress in defending themselves from abusive people.
B. The View of Child Rape Cases under Categorical Imperative
According to Kant, Categorical Imperative are moral rules or obligations.
Categorical Imperative is an end itself where it does not accept conditions to meet a certain
end but rather a law or obligation to all ends. Under it has four formulas, namely (1) The
Universal Law of Nature Formula, (2) The Humanity Formula, (3) The Autonomy
Formula, and (4) The Kingdom of Ends Formula.
To explain each briefly, The Universal Law of Nature Formula states that the
maxims which the act should be capable of becoming a universal law or the reason behind
it shall be universally acceptable. On one hand, The Humanity Formula focuses on
respecting people and that each person possesses ultimate value called dignity. On the
other hand, The Autonomy Formula is the ability of every rationale being to formulate and
 legislate their own universal law. Lastly, The Kingdom of Ends Formula shows that with
all he maxims of individuals, we make possible kingdom of ends. 4

After giving a brief background of Categorical Imperative, let us now apply the
concept to our current dilemma which is the rape cases of young children in the Philippines.
The Categorical Imperative states that the maxim should be universal and having twelve
years old as an age consent can be debated in many countries as the average age of consent
is sixteen years old. It can be questioned that the age of consent is too low, and it does not
fully protect everyone mostly the young people in the range of thirteen to eighteen years
of age. Every individual shall have their chance to make their own universal law and these
children should have the right to be protected as universal laws are made for all humans
and not only the interest of few.
Having cases like young rape crimes in the Philippines, I propose my solution with
this ethical dilemma using the four formulas of the categorical imperative to be shown:

1. The Universal Law of Nature Formula

Maxim: I consider that the age of consent should be eighteen years of age.
General Maxim: Everyone should consider that the age of consent should
be eighteen years of age.
To further prove this, eighteen years old is the legal age in the Philippines
to access a lot of benefits and to be able to consider a person aware of what
they are doing. The general maxim does not hurt another individual but is
still debatable for now, but the fact that rape cases are happening to young
individuals due to the law and having thirteen years old to eighteen years
old of age undergo such traumatic court experience and questioning can be
a good point for such a debate.
2. The Humanity Formula
Focusing that individual has dignity and everybody possess
unlimited worth, it is worth mentioning that these young children should
not be deprived of their right to be protected as they are not able to defend
themselves from adults that wants to abuse them. The maxim I presented
above should be able to provide the ability to provide unlimited worth or
dignity to these young victims and justice to be served to those who abuse
the current law.
3. The Autonomy Formula
In this case, I consider myself as a rationale being able to legislate
what I believe to be a maxim. I have the right to create a law to protect these
young victims as an individual with a concern to everyone. I believe that
my maxim is wanted by these young victims as well as they believe that
these will help them and the next generation, be protected by the law and as

4
Categorical imperative. (n.d.). Retrieved December 05, 2018, from
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Categorical_imperative
 an individual which the only goal is to flourish along with other human
beings.
4. The Kingdom of Ends Formula
With another maxim that is presented by an individual (or presented
by me), there is a new addition to the kingdom of ends or another possibility.
I, as individual, contributed to other possibilities and laws an individual can
make. I decided to make a maxim with the concern of contributing
something beneficial for humanity mostly for the children or whom we
consider the hope of the future and provide them with utmost protection and
security as individuals protecting each other’s dignity.

II. Age of Consent: Ethical Dilemma and the proposed Solution using both Ethics of
Care and Categorical Imperative

Now that we are aware of both ethical concepts and their effects to our daily lives
and decisions and a little background on how we view the rape cases of young individuals
in the Philippines in two different ethical concepts. Presented with those two ethical
concepts, I will now draw a conclusion to how to make a solution to this ethical dilemma
which is the problem of the age of consent regarding child rape cases in the Philippines. I
suggest raising the age of consent to eighteen years old because of the following reasons:
1. Youth ages thirteen to eighteen are not to be subjected to psychological or
emotional torture to prove that they are violated as a care receiver and a
person with dignity.
2. These young children should be protected as they cannot fend for
themselves and at the same time they should be able to have a say as a
rationale being in what they should experience and what they should not
experience as an autonomous member of the society.
3. Children younger than eighteen years old should be provided with quality
care and laws that will provide them safety until they are able to make
decisions in the right state of mind and consciousness as it is practiced
worldwide that the age of consent should be an average of 16 years old and
with the Philippines having insufficient funds to educate young people,
providing utmost care and education will take more time unlike other
countries.
4. Both education and protection should be accessible to these young people
to be able to provide them quality help as they grow as individuals and to
guide them in the proper way to make decisions and to formulate their own
laws in the near future.
With these four points, I therefore conclude that to be able to have a better future
we shall protect these children with what we have and create the law that will protect the
innocent and not the abusive ones. The goal of ethics is to have different perspectives in
such ethical dilemmas and drawing out the best solution to these problems.
 After making this paper and with further research presented above, I have seen the
child rape cases in the Philippines as a result of having a faulty law allowing the age of
consent to be as low as twelve years of age. These young victims are even subjected to
emotional and psychological trauma to be able to defend themselves in court just because
they were older than twelve years old. I see this problem to have a solution if we raise the
age of consent to eighteen years of age as they can now fend for themselves in a way
compared to a thirteen-year-old one. On one hand, in the lens of ethics of care we shall
provide quality care for these young children by giving them the protection they needed.
On the other hand, in the lens of categorical imperative, a person should be able to make a
universal law that will help each person to maintain their dignity and autonomy to one
another and raping a child is a violation to their dignity and autonomy as a rationale being.
That being said, I present my solution to the ethical dilemma of the decision-making ability
of young victims regarding rape cases in the Philippines to be laid in our hands, the adults
whom are able to fight for them, to raise the age of consent from twelve years of age to
eighteen years of age where they are able to make a decisions and to fight for themselves
with less trauma compared to their younger selves.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY
Rodriguez, F. (n.d.). Remembering the rape of Rosario Baluyot. Retrieved
December 04, 2018, from https://www.rappler.com/move-ph/ispeak/60590-rosario-
baluyot-philippines-rape
Dunn, C. P., & Burton, B. K. (2017, June 19). Ethics of care. Retrieved December
05, 2018, from https://www.britannica.com/topic/ethics-of-care
Sander-Staudt, M. (n.d.). Care Ethics. Retrieved December 05, 2018, from
https://www.iep.utm.edu/care-
eth/?fbclid=IwAR2IgV1FNEiJjwG9fVdELzdka0a910c7yjtZjIzoZQxEYy9sGvWadjYvH
-0#H2
Categorical imperative. (n.d.). Retrieved December 05, 2018, from
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Categorical_imperative