To spank or not to spank: ‘Discipline without harm’

GENERAL SANTOS CITY — Media practitioners from Television, Radio and Print gathered at the Regional Seminar for Child Protection and Child-Sensitive Media Reporting organized by Plan International, recently.

Latest survey from Pulse Asia in 2011 shows that corporal punishment is still practiced by most parents as a form of discipline, yet according to the Legal counsel of KBP Atty. Rudolph Steve Juralbal, there are 86 laws that protect the rights of children in the Philippines as of 2015. Children in most-at-risk populations and are with typical living are victims; most common victims are of physical & verbal abuse, abandoned and those children who are in conflict with the law.

Plan International, a non-government organization is now working in 64 developing countries across Africa, Asia and the Americas to promote child rights with projects in anti-corporal punishment and anti-child trafficking. Project Manager Mr. Jayson Lozano, expresses, “Child Protection is every man’s concern.”

Testimonials from the residents of Alabel, Sarangani Province like from the 12 year-old high school student Nicole, a Youth for Student Advocate, make the participants appreciate better the impacts of spanking kids. “The youth should end the corporal punishment so that it will not be passed to the next generation.” (Janin R. Langoy)