Philippines Assistance for Visitors and Expats

Posts Tagged ‘marry’

I recently received this email via one of the many web sites where my eBooks are offered for sale. I have to confess my first thought was the writer is trying to set me up, hoping I will endorse their twisted behaviour and thinking. I had just received a written apology from the Dean of the Univeristy of Queensland law school for being labelled the husband of ‘a mail order bride’ in a report on human trafficking that quoted that and cited a web page and one of my books as the source. Given the web page says nothing about how or where my wife and I met, to say otherwise cast doubts on the veracity of anything else in the report, let alone insulted my wife and myself. Anyway, following that incident and due to the numerous attempts I had to make to obtain some form of redress, I confess my antennae were twitching when this gem hit myu inbox:

Dear Perry,
I am contacting you since you seen to have a very valuable knowledge of the Philippines.
I was contacted on Filipinaheart.com by a beautiful Filipina girl who is 15 years old. I am European, and 48. I went to visit her twice, in Cebu, and we are now lovers. We both want to have sexual intercourse, but I wonder what can be the consequences. We are talking about marriage in the future, and making babies and a family. I have read confusing information on the web about the “age of consent” being 12 in the Philippines, but possibilities of being arrested on some websites. Where is the truth ? Thanks in advance for your help.

This is my restrained response:

Dear Sir, I am deeply concerned to read your email. I presume you were aware of her age prior to your first visit and if not, then at least by the time of your second. At this point I would not concern myself with the consequences of consummating this relationship by sexual intercourse as far as the Philippines authorities are concerned. I would be more in fear of the reciprocal laws current in all EU countries regarding pedophilia, human trafficking and other crimes.

And make no mistake, these are crimes. It matters not whether your 15 year old believes she is ready for a sexual relationship. It is against the law. I will keep my own views about such a practise to myself other than to state that you can rest assured as the father of four daughters and being of the same age as yourself, I find the whole matter extremely disturbing to say the least.

There are millions of truly wonderful, single, adult Filipinas of legal age to choose from. I can only hope that common sense will prevail in this matter and that you, as the adult, take charge and end this inappropriate and potentially illegal relationship immediately. Even waiting until she is of legal age is not appropriate as she is not an equal partner in this relationship either in her maturity or economic situation. In other words she is vulnerable and open to abuse.  Please do not ask for my advice on this matter again as I have no interest in such relationships other than to do all I can to help protect children and the vulnerable in any way appropriate.

Not surprisingly I never heard from him ever again, nor do I wish to. I can’t accept a grown man would ask such a question unless it is a trap. So the lesson here is twofold.

First of all obey the laws of the land and the laws of decency. You know it is wrong to covet a minor, even one who might have all the appearence of being sexually mature. The age of consent is still 12 but that is under review and may be changed by the time you read this. The opposition to changing it is mostly from religious types who believe bad things don’t happen to good people, good people being believers etc.

If the person is under 18 and there is money involved then it is a crime as prostitution is illegal in the Philippines. If the person is between 12 and 18 but their partner is more than 10 years older than they are, then the age of consent is 18 and they are now guilty of a crime. If they were say 20 and their partner 14, no problem providing there was no money involved. If the girl is 17 and the guy is 28 then he is more than 10 years older than she is and bingo, he’s gone.

Homosexuality is illegal there too so the presumption is always that the younger person will be of the opposite sex and most likely a girl. A lot of the law is still mixed up with catholic attitudes and confusing and contradictory but they are slowly changing many of them. The problem is so many laws now enacted cross into areas of other laws and so you could be up for two or more offenses and one of them might be a capital crime!

For this person to admit he knows she is 15, (he is 48) means he isn’t looking for advice, he wants a plausible excuse. Or he (or she or they) is trying to entrap me somehow for some reason. Well, having a clean record and a clear conscience I can sleep at night but I wonder if the writer/s can?