MANILA--With the “alarming ” number of minors involved in pornography, advocacy for the passage of the anti-child pornography bill has increased.
The Catholic bishops’ leadership said it is good that the legislators are finally doing something about child pornography, but the bill against it must be passed soonest.
Fr. Conegundo Garganta, CBCP’s Episcopal Commission on Youth executive secretary (ECY), said a strict law against criminals who profit from child pornography must be put in place.
“We’ve been pushing for this long time ago and it’s about time for lawmakers to take this issue so seriously,” he said.
Garganta said the government must tackle sex abuse in all its forms and crack down on those who make financial gain from exploiting the minors.
“We’re getting dismayed because of the delayed passage of the bill. It seems to us that lawmakers don’t really care about this issue,” he said.
The priest said they expected that the anti-child pornography bill would be signed into law last February, “but lawmakers disappointed us again.”
He called legislators to have the sense of urgency in discussing and passing the proposed measure that would disrupt, prosecute and seize the assets of those who profit from child sex crimes.
“We hope that they will not keep it longer because as days goes on we know that more innocent children fell as victims of this crime,” said Garganta.
Last November, the Senate passed on second reading its version of the anti-child pornography bill. The CBCP official is appealing to the lawmakers in Congress to also fast-track the passage its own version of the bill. (Roy Lagarde)