A lawmaker on Saturday urged Congress to enact a law that will penalize male prostitution.
Outgoing Bacolod City Rep. Evelio R. Leonardia said that under the law, prostitutes only refer to “women who for money or profit, habitually indulge in sexual intercourse or lascivious conduct.”
The incoming mayor of the city said the definition unequivocally limits the term prostitute to women without providing a corresponding penalty for men who commit similar violation of the law.
Leonardia, author of House Bill 6500 or the measure seeking to amend Act 3815 to include male prostitutes in penalizing prostitution, stressed it is embodied in the Constitution that the State recognizes the role of women in nation building and shall ensure the fundamental equality before the law of men and women.
“The equal protection of the law and indiscrimination regardless of one’s gender must be upheld as it is a guaranteed right under our Bill of Rights,” he said.
Leonardia said it is high time to consider that morality and chastity is a quality each citizen must possess and protect to gain respect as an individual.
The bill amends Article 202 of the Revised Penal Code to read as follows: Article 202 Prostitutes; penalty—For the purposes of this article, men or women who, for money or profit, habitually indulge in sexual intercourse or lasciviousness conduct, are deemed to be prostitutes.
Leonardia, in his proposal, said any person found guilty of any of the offenses covered by this article shall be punished by arresto menor or a fine not exceeding P200 and in case of recidivism, by arresto mayor in its medium period to prision correccional in its minimum period or a fine ranging from P200 to P2,000, or both, upon discretion of the court.
The lawmaker also cited in his proposal filed in the 16th Congress that Article 202-A should also be amended, such as the crime and providing for its penalty must read as follows: Article 202-A—A male prostitute or gigolo is a man who is paid by a woman or another man to habitually engage in sexual intercourse or lascivious conduct in exchange for money or things of value which fosters the immoral acts shall suffer the same penalty with the preceding article.
Leonardia explained it is embodied in the Constitution that the State recognizes the role of women in nation building, and shall ensure the fundamental equality before the law of men and women.
Leonardia is hopeful that a lawmaker from the 17th Congress will initiate the refiling of the measure.
