In her first day as senator, Ma. Lourdes “Nancy” Binay filed a proposed legislation amending the VAWC (Violence against Women and their Children) Law to include digital forms of violence against women and children.
The VAWC Law, a powerful piece of legislation that protects women and their children against physical, sexual, psychological or economic abuse, does not include online abuse committed by their partners or former partners.
Under Binay?s proposed E-VAWC Law of 2013, other forms of digital harassments such as cyber bullying will now be covered by the law.
Binay has scheduled to frontload all her 15 bills this week to ensure that they be referred to appropriate committees once the formal sessions in the Senate start, her office said in a statement.
The 16th Congress would not begin its legislative assembly until July 22.
Binay said that the early filing of bills is critical to advancing the priorities of the Senate and she hopes that most of the bills that she filed would find their way to passage.
“I want to make sure that the bills we will be crafting are realistic, doable, and would benefit every Filipino family especially women and children. I am aware that it would take a lot of skill to manage and defend to get the bills passed, but I’m ready to discuss and negotiate with my colleagues in the Senate in order to reach the needed consensus on pressing issues,” she stressed.
Binay has likewise expressed her support for the advocacy for legal adoption of orphans and vowed to review existing statutes on adoption.
“We are still reviewing current laws on adoption. From there we will identify the bottlenecks in the bureaucracy, simplify the paperwork and legal requisites without compromising the rights and interests of the adopted child,” the lady senator said.
