By Basti Vertudez

Following the controversial ‘Anti-Ghosting Bill’, Negros Oriental Representative Arnie Teves Jr. proposed light penalties like community service as a punishment for “ghosting” should the bill gets passed.

Photo Courtesy of The Philippine STAR/Getty Images

In an interview with ABS-CBN last July 27, the lawmaker pointed out that although the penalties are still yet to be finalized, only light sanctions for people who committed ghosting will do.

“Wala pa ako nilalagay pero para sa akin, kahit community service. It need not be heavy, it’s just light. A slight reprimand, that will do,” Tevez stated after filing House Bill No. 611 on Tuesday, aiming to tag ghosting as an “emotional offense.”

According to the proposed measure, ghosting is defined as a "form of emotional abuse and happens once a person is engaged in a dating relationship with the opposite sex which affects the mental state of the victim."

While on social media, it is popularized as the term when someone cuts off their communication and ties with a person without giving any explanation or closure, no matter what type of relationship they are in.

The congressman asserted upon filing the bill at the House of Representatives that ghosting is “mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausting” for those who are aggrieved of it, likening it to some sort of “emotional cruelty.”

“The ambiguity with ghosting is that there is no real closure between parties concerned, and as such, it can be likened to a form of emotional cruelty and should be punished as an emotional offense because of the trauma it causes to the ‘ghosted',” Teves noted in his proposal.

The said bill which seeks to penalize ghosters has received flak on social media due to its said prioritization in the midst of a health crisis, inflation of basic goods, and countless issues that the country faces.


Edited by Juliana Christine Mondoyo