Human Rights Online Philippines

PETA to parents: “love does not hurt”

Love, more often than not, is associated with the idea of pain. The idea of the “martir” is often brought up whenever Filipinos refer to someone who, out of love, chooses to bear his suffering quietly. Songs about how love hurts are some of the most requested on the radio, while there is always that one lead character in every teleserye love story who endures pain on a daily basis.

But this love-pain association is not limited to romantic love. As children, many Filipinos have endured pain from corporal punishment with their parents telling them that said pain is necessary. “Do you think hurting you makes me happy? I feel pain, too,” parents would often explain. Many of these conversations would end with the parent saying “I only hurt you because I love you.”

The Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) believes this doesn’t have to be the case. For the past three years, PETA has been changing the way Filipino families practice discipline and express their love with the PETA Advocate Right to Safety Zone for Children (PETA ARTS Zone Project).

PETA ARTS Zone Project is a cultural campaign promoting “positive discipline” in the Philippines and is now entering its second phase, with renewed support from terre des hommes Germany (tdh Germany) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

PETA’s slogan for the project’s second phase finds strength in simplicity – “love does not hurt.”

Loving someone means protecting them and ensuring their safety, PETA reminds families. With this in mind, PETA advises parents that they can best show their love by upholding the right of their children to be protected from cruel acts, and that the use of both physical and psychological violence is a violation of this right. PETA also asserts that the practice of positive discipline is a viable, if not altogether better, alternative to corporal punishment.

In PETA ARTS Zone Project’s new advocacy video for its second phase, children were asked if it’s okay to hurt people they love, and were unanimous in answering that it’s not okay at all. In the same video, they were also asked if loving someone is a difficult task. One of the girls shook her head no and said, “you just love them.”

PETA agrees with the children and, in the past three years, countless parents have also found themselves agreeing because of the PETA ARTS Zone Project. With the second phase of the project now in full swing, the next three years look promising for the PETA ARTS Zone Project and positive discipline in the Philippines.

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