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Philippines raises minimum age of sexual consent to 16

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte. [Courtesy of Euronews]

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has signed into law a bill that raises the minimum age of sexual consent from 12 to 16, his office said on Monday, in a bid to protect minors from rape and sexual abuse.

The Philippines until now has had one of the world's lowest minimum ages of sexual consent, behind Nigeria's age of 11, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

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