Decision
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G.R. No. 227363
the former provision, "child abuse" refers to the maltreatment, whether
habitual or not, of the child which includes sexual abuse, among other
matters. In the latter provision, "sexual abuse" includes the employment,
use, persuasion, inducement, enticement or coercion of a child to engage in,
or assist another person to engage in, sexual intercourse or lascivious
conduct or the molestation, prostitution, or incest with children. Thus, the
term "other sexual abuse" is broad enough to include all other acts of sexual
abuse other than prostitution. Accordingly, a single act of lascivious conduct
is punished under Section S(b ), Article III, when the victim is 12 years old
and below 18, or 18 or older under special circumstances. In contrast, when
the victim is under 12 years old, the proviso of Section 5(b) states that the
perpetrator should be prosecuted under Article 336 of the RPC for acts of
lasciviousness, whereby the lascivious conduct itself is the sole element of
the said crime. This is because in statutory acts of lasciviousness, as in
statutory rape, the minor is presumed incapable of giving consent; hence, the
other circumstances pertaining to rape - force, threat, intimidation, etc. are immaterial.
Justice Caguioa also posits that the Senate deliberation on R.A. No.
7610 is replete with similar disquisitions that all show the intent to make the
law applicable to cases involving child exploitation through prostitution,
sexual abuse, child trafficking, pornography and other types of abuses. He
stresses that the passage of the laws was the Senate's act of heeding the call
of the Court to afford protection to a special class of children, and not to
cover any and all crimes against children that are already covered by other
penal laws, such as the RPC and Presidential Decree No. 603, otherwise
known as the Child and Youth Welfare Code. He concludes that it is
erroneous for us to rule that R.A. No. 7610 applies in each and every case
where the victim although he or she was not proved, much less, alleged to be
a child "exploited in prostitution or subjected to other sexual abuse." He
invites us to go back to the ruling in Abella that "since R.A. No. 7610 is a
special law referring to a particular class in society, the prosecution must
show that the victim truly belongs to this particular class to warrant the
application of the statute's provisions. Any doubt in this regard we must
resolve in favor of the accused."
Justice Estela M. Perlas-Bernabe also disagrees that R.A. No. 7610
would be generally applicable to all cases of sexual abuse involving minors,
except those who are under 12 years of age. Justice Perlas-Bernabe concurs
with Jµstice Caguioa that Section 5(b ), Article III of R.A. No. 7610 only
applies in instances where the child-victim is "exploited in prostitution or
subject to other sexual abuse" (EPSOSA). She asserts that her limited view,
as opposed to the ponencia 's expansive view, is not only supported by
several textual indicators both in law and the deliberations, but also squares
with practical logic and reason. She also contends that R.A. No. 7610 was
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