Villar sounds alarm on Internet child pornography

SENATOR Manuel Villar has filed a resolution for Senate to look into the “alarming” level of Internet-based child pornography in the Philippines.

Villar, head of the Senate committee on public order and illegal drugs, said the "alarming prevalence of child pornography on the Internet involving Filipino children" calls for the strict enforcement of anti-pornography laws in the country.

Senate Resolution 297 directs the Committee on Youth, Women and Family Relations to conduct an investigation into pornographic materials on the Internet involving Filipino children.

Saying the country is not lacking in laws, but in implementation, Villar added: “That is why I am calling for the strict and consistent enforcement of anti-pornography laws in order to punish or to impose sanctions to violators."

Villar said the incidence of pedophilia in the country has increased and that most perpetrators involve foreigners or tourists, “who are rarely apprehended or arrested for their molestation
and abuse of Filipino children.”

He stressed that child pornography is also a violation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which the Philippines is a signatory.