Veto override on corporal punishment ordinance eyed

CEBU, Philippines - Contrary to what most Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BOPK) members at the City Council are suggesting, City Councilor Lea Japson said yesterday she does not want to postpone the implementation of the Anti-Corporal Punishment Ordinance.

“I don’t think we need another postponement (of the implementation). But if the public wants it, depende na… but I already explained the ordinance several times and daghan ang nakasabot,” Japson told the media yesterday.

Japson authored the “Promoting Positive and Non-violent Discipline of Children Ordinance” that the Council approved last week, but Mayor Michael Rama said he will veto the move.

Rama described the proposed ordinance as anti-poor because the P5,000 penalty for violators is too big. He has 10 days to arrive at a final decision.

If and when the mayor makes true his statement to veto the proposed law, it is most likely that those who voted to pass it will also vote to override the veto, said Councilor Margot Osmeña, another author of the proposal. 

Like Japson, Councilor Alvin Dizon, another proponent, also sees an urgency to implement the ordinance.

Japson and Dizon said the differences in opinion among BOPK members only show that the group is “very democratic” – that anyone can express his or her opinion and others can oppose it.

The other day, both Vice Mayor Joy Augustus Young and Cebu City South District Rep. Tomas Osmeña suggested the holding of a plebiscite to let the public decide whether or not they would want the proposed ordinance implemented.

Yesterday, Japson reiterated that the law’s purpose is basically to discipline children in a proper way. She also said the law does not imprison violators outright.

Shalaine Marie Lucero of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) 7 said the agency has recorded 673 cases of abuse and maltreatment of children in the last five years. She said positive discipline is a “way of thinking, something that a parent has to do.”

Osmeña herself said it does not deprive parents of the right to discipline their children. In fact, she says, it will give parents the chance to prepare their children to become better citizens in the future.

Alejandro Alonzo, Commission on Human Rights 7 Director, said he does not see anything wrong with the proposed ordinance. He said it supports some laws like Republic Act 7610 or the Anti-Child Abuse Act.

“Even without the ordinance, there are already laws prohibiting parents and teachings from doing corporal punishment to children,” Alonzo said, adding, it is about time that children are disciplined in a “human-right” kind of way.

Study

In a study led by Canadian researchers, it was found that people who were hit or spanked as children face higher odds of mental ailments as adults, including mood and anxiety disorders and problems with alcohol and drug abuse, said an article of the Agence France Presse.

The study is said to be the first to examine the link between psychological problems and spanking, while excluding more severe physical or sexual abuse in order to better gauge the effect of corporal punishment alone.

The findings were based on a retrospective survey of more than 600 US adults, revealed the study published in the US journal Pediatrics.

Researchers found that those who were spanked or hit as kids were between two and seven percent more likely to encounter mental issues later.

While the study focused on only 653 subjects and because about half of the US population recalls being spanked in childhood, it shows, nevertheless, that physical punishment can raise the risk of problems later on, experts said.

“The study is valuable because it opens the conversation about parenting,” said Victor Fornari, director of the division of child and adolescent psychiatry at North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System in New York.

The rate “is not dramatically higher, but it is higher, just to suggest that physical punishment is a risk factor for developing more mental disturbances as an adult,” said Fornari, who was not involved in the study.

Previous research has repeatedly shown that children who were physically abused as youngsters suffer from more mental disturbances as adults, and are more likely to engage in aggressive behavior than kids who were not hit. These studies have typically included more serious abuse.

The current study excludes both sexual abuse and physical abuse that left bruises, marks or caused injury and focused on “harsh physical punishment,” defined as pushing, grabbing, shoving, slapping or hitting as a form of punishment from elders.

The AFP report said that while 32 nations around the world have banned corporal punishment of kids, the United States and Canada are not among them.

Using a nationally representative survey sample of 653 Americans, researchers found that those who recalled experiencing harsh punishment as children faced higher odds of a range of mental problems.

Between two and five percent of disorders like depression, anxiety, bipolar, anorexia or bulimia were attributable to physical punishment as a child, the study said.

From four to seven percent of more serious problems including personality disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder and intellectual disabilities were associated with such punishments in childhood.

Researchers stressed that the study could not establish that spanking had actually caused these disorders in certain adults, only that there was a link between memories of such punishment and a higher incidence of mental problems.

The survey data came from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions collected between 2004 and 2005, and included adults over age 20.

Participants were asked: “As a child how often were you ever pushed, grabbed, shoved, slapped or hit by your parents or any adult living in your house?” Those who answered “sometimes” or greater were included in the analysis.

The American Academy of Pediatrics opposes striking children for any cause and the Canadian Pediatric Society recommends that doctors strongly discourage the use of physical punishment. – (FREEMAN)