Photos of a 13-year-old girl getting married to a 48-year-old man have put the spotlight on the menace of child marriage in the Philippines even as the South-East Asian country’s Senate unanimously passed a bill that seeks to criminalise the practice.

Abdukrzak Ampatuan, a farmer, got married for the fifth time, on this occasion to 13-year-old Asnaira Mugaling in an elaborate Islamic wedding ceremony on Oct. 22. Photos from the ceremony, that have gone viral on social media, showed the teen sitting beside the groom wearing a white traditional gown.

About 726,000 child brides in the Philippines put the country at the 12th position when it comes to underage marriages, according to data United Nations Children’s Fund stated. Approximately 15% of the girls are married off before they turn 18.

Earlier this month, the country passed a bill that declared child marriage illegal, CNN reported. Anybody who arranges or officiates child marriages can be jailed for up to 12 years.

Sen. Risa Hontiveros, who had filed the bill in March, told the senate, "The issue of child, early and forced marriages is one that is largely invisible to us here in Metro Manila, but it is a tragic reality for scores of young girls who are forced by economic circumstances and cultural expectations to shelve their own dreams, begin families they are not ready for, and raise children even when their own childhoods have not yet ended."

"Today we give our girls a chance to dream, a chance to define their future according to their own terms. We defend their right to declare when they are ready to begin their families. We tell them their health matters to us, their education matters to us. We give them a fighting shot," she added, the Asean Post reported.

Meanwhile, Mugaling will now be taking care of her husband's children, who are closer to her age, Harian Metro reported.

"I’m happy to have found her and spend my days with her looking after my children," Ampatuan said, Extra Online reported.

The man has built a small home for them to live together. He said he wants his wife to complete her education before they plan to have children, which will only happen once she turns 20.

"I’m going to pay for her school because I want her to get an education while waiting for the right time to have children," he said.

Mugaling said her husband is "nice to her."

"I am learning how to cook because I’m not good at it now. I want to make my husband happy," she said.

Child marriage has long been common in traditional communities from the Indonesian archipelago to India, Pakistan and Vietnam, but numbers had been decreasing as charities made inroads by encouraging access to education and women's health services
Child marriage has long been common in traditional communities from the Indonesian archipelago to India, Pakistan and Vietnam, but numbers had been decreasing as charities made inroads by encouraging access to education and women's health services AFP / YUSUF WAHIL
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