The Supreme Court (SC) has released a ruling allowing fathers to institute cases under the Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children (VAWC) Act against mothers who abuse their children.
This as the high court, in an 18-page decision written by Justice Mario V. Lopez, granted the petition of Randy Michael Knutson on behalf of his minor daughter.
The petition challenged the ruling of the Taguig City Regional Trial Court (RTC) dismissing Knutson’s petition under Republic Act 9262, or the VAWC Act, for the issuance of Temporary and Protection Orders against Rosalina Knutson, the mother of his daughter.
In his petition, Knutson claimed that Rosalina placed their daughter in a harmful environment deleterious to the latter’s physical, emotional, moral, and psychological development.
The RTC dismissed Knutson’s petition on the ground that protection and custody orders under the VAWC Act could not be issued against a mother who allegedly abused her own child.
The RTC added that the remedies under the law were not available to Knutson, the father, because he was not a “woman victim of violence.”
In granting Knutson’s petition, the Sc ruled that while the VAWC Act excludes men as victims, this does not mean the law denies a father of its remedies solely because of his gender or the fact that he is not a “woman victim of violence.”
The Court held that Section 9(b) of the VAWC Act explicitly allows “parents or guardians of the offended party” to file a petition for protection orders.
This provision was further incorporated in the law’s implementing rules as well as in A.M. No. 04-10-11-SC or the Rule on Violence Against Women and Children.
The Court further explained that the law speaks in clear language when it used the word “parents” pertaining to the father and the mother of the woman or child victim.
Source: https://abogado.com.ph/sc-okays-father-to-file-vawc-case-on-behalf-of-abused-children/
Oh My Kwento!!!! 