MANILA, Philippines (Updated 3:50 p.m.) — Seeing booze as a bane to health and the community, Reps. Eric Yap (Benguet) and Paolo Duterte (Davao City) are seeking to increase the legal drinking age to 21 from 18 and ban persons with disabilities from buying alcohol.
Yap and Duterte filed House Bill No. 1753 on Monday with the goal of barring “unqualified individuals” from buying alcohol or alcoholic beverages and prevent others from buying alcohol and alcoholic beverages for them.
Under the proposal, unqualified individuals include those aged below 21 and those who are above 21 “but are unable to fully take care of themselves or protect themselves from abuse, neglect, cruelty, exploitation or discrimination because of a physical or mental disability or condition.”
PWD Philippines president Arpee Lazaro said that while limiting alcohol consumption is a good thing, PWDs must be given free rein on whether to consume it or not.
"We must be free to choose as all other non-disabled people. It goes against the grain of what we have been fighting for, that we are treated equally as those without disabilities," Lazaro said in a statement sent to Philstar.com.
The measure also seeks to prohibit presenting fake IDs to misrepresent one’s age and allowing the consumption or possession of alcohol or alcoholic beverages by a person below 21 in an establishment’s premises.
Under the bill, “unqualified individuals” who violate the measure for the first time would be sent for counseling before the Barangay Council for the Protection of Children.
On their second offense, they will be required to attend two consecutive counseling sessions with the BCPC with their parents or guardians, which if they fail to comply with, their case would be elevated to the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
“Unqualified individuals” who violate the measure’s provisions for the third and succeeding time will be handed over to the local DSWD “for appropriate counseling and proper disposition on the matter.”
Everyone else who violates provisions of the proposed law would be punished by a P50,000 fine or jail time of up to three months. Succeeding offenses will be meted with both penalties, in addition to the revocation of their business license.
Public officers who fail to implement the proposed law will also be punished with jail time of at least one month to six months and a temporary suspension from public service.
A 2021 mobile phone survey by the Department of Health revealed that 40.1% of Filipinos reported drinking alcohol within the last 30 days before the poll.