The Supreme Court (SC) said in a ruling that there must be a clear intent to harm a child’s dignity for it to be considered child abuse.
Penned by Associate Justice Jhosep Lopez, the decision by the SC Second Division upheld the conviction of a father for giving violent and excessive discipline to his 12-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son.
According to the court, the father beat his children from 2017 to 2018. He pulled his daughter’s hair, struck her with a wooden rod with a nail, hit both children with a dustpan, and cursed at them.
The SC said the father got angry at his daughter on September 22, 2017 because she had not eaten her lunch, while he hit them on February 21, 2018 since the money they saved in their coin banks was lacking.
In defense, the father said his actions were meant to discipline his children.
Both the regional trial court and the Court of Appeals (CA) found him guilty of violating the Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation, and Discrimination Act.
In his appeal before the SC, the father argued that he had no intention of harming his children’s dignity.
The SC, however, said that his actions went beyond reasonable discipline and showed a clear intent to harm the children’s dignity.
“Although petitioner, as a parent, has the right to instill discipline in his minor children, still, the disciplinary measures he employed were excessive, violent, and completely disproportionate to correct the alleged misconduct or misbehavior of his children,” it said.
“Given these circumstances, it can be reasonably inferred that his act of laying hands on his children was done with the specific intent to debase, degrade, or demean their intrinsic worth and dignity as human beings,” it added.
The father was sentenced to four to six years in jail and ordered to pay his children P180,000 in damages.
The decision was promulgated on July 22, 2024 and was released to the public on Thursday, January 9, 2025. —VBL, GMA Integrated News
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