Three House of Representatives committees have endorsed the immediate enactment of a bill penalizing persons found guilty of inflicting other forms of corporal and humiliating punishment on them.

The three House panels — on revision of laws, welfare of children and appropriations, unanimously approved House Bill 6699 or the so-called Anti Corporal Punishment Act of 2009, seeking immediate plenary deliberation on the measure.

Isabela Rep. Giorgidi Aggabao chairman of the revision of laws panel said they have asked the House leadership to schedule the measure for plenary deliberations. He appealed for the inclusion of HB 6699 in the list of priority bills to be approved by the chamber before the end of the year.

Reps. Nikki Prieto Teodoro, principal author of the measure and chairperson of the committee on welfare of children, aired hopes that the proposal will be treated by the chamber with the same urgency it has demonstrated in approving the Anti-Child Pornography Bill.

Teodoro, wife of Defense Secretary Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro, said HB 6699 prohibits all corporal punishment and all other forms of humiliating or degrading punishment of children in homes, schools and other places.

“The bill defines the crime as a punishment or penalty for an offense or imagined offense, acts carried out for the purpose of discipline, training or control, inflicted by an adult who has been given or has assumed authority or responsibility for punishment or discipline,” she explained.