But undoubtedly, the most disturbing, to say the least, is the persistent report of children being sexually exploited and molested for purely material gains. Children with ages ranging from three to 18 years are used and abused. We hear and read stories of rape, manhandling and sexual molestation in the hands of cruel sexual perverts, local and foreigners alike. As of October 1990, records show that 50 cases of physical abuse were reported, with the ratio of six females to four males. x x x xxxx x x x No less than the Supreme Court, in the recent case of People vs. Ritter, held that we lack criminal laws which will adequately protect streetchildren from exploitation by pedophiles. x x x[7] The case referred to by Senator Rasul, People v. Ritter,[8] is a 1991 case which involved an Austrian national who was charged with rape with homicide for having ultimately caused the death of Rosario, a street child, by inserting a foreign object into her vagina during the course of performing sexual acts with her. Ritter was acquitted based on reasonable doubt on account of, among others, the failure of the prosecution to (1) establish the age of Rosario to be within the range of statutory rape, and (2) show force or intimidation as an essential element of rape in the face of the finding that Rosario was a child prostitute who willingly engaged in sexual acts with Ritter. Constrained to acquit Ritter, the Court made the following pronouncements: It is with distressing reluctance that we have to seemingly set back the efforts of Government to dramatize the death of Rosario Baluyot as a means of galvanizing the nation to care for its street children. It would have meant a lot to social workers and prosecutors alike if one pedophile killer could be brought to justice so that his example would arouse public concern, sufficient for the formulation and implementation of meaningful remedies. However, we cannot convict on anything less than proof beyond reasonable doubt. The protections of the Bill of Rights and our criminal justice system are as much, if not more so, for the perverts and outcasts of society as they are for normal, decent, and law-abiding people. xxxx And finally, the Court deplores the lack of criminal laws which will adequately protect street children from exploitation by pedophiles, pimps, and, perhaps, their own parents or guardians who profit from the sale of young bodies. The provisions on statutory rape and other related offenses were never intended for the relatively recent influx of pedophiles taking advantage of rampant poverty among the forgotten segments of our society. Newspaper and