IN the face of continuing acts of cruelty against dogs and cats, lawmakers need to give their full attention to passing a bill to update the Animal Welfare Act to give it more teeth and to keep up with the times.
Just this month, a criminology dean and a janitress at Systems Plus College Foundation (SPCF) in Angeles City, Pampanga, were caught on video beating a light-colored campus stray named “Edward” with a heavy wooden truncheon and pushing him down the stairs. The friendly and docile community dog went missing immediately after the assault and is widely feared dead after another video surfaced of school personnel stuffing a motionless dog into a sack.
In the Bauan-San Pascual area of Batangas, eyewitnesses captured on video a tricycle driver dragging a dog that was desperately trying to keep up with the vehicle’s speed to avoid being dragged directly on the asphalt. When confronted by bystanders, the tricycle driver acknowledged that he was aware the dog was tied to his tricycle.
In Sorsogon City, the city veterinarian cited bureaucratic requirements to have police shut down a low-cost community spay and neuter initiative organized by a local welfare group in partnership with visiting veterinarians, sparking a significant public outcry from pet owners, many of whom had traveled long distances for the event.
Incidents such as these highlight the lack of appreciation among a certain demographic — and sadly, even among public officials — of the need to safeguard animal welfare and to enable volunteers who give selflessly to support the cause.
Akbayan Rep. Chel Diokno, one of the co-authors of House Bill 11495, or the Animal Life Advocacy and Guardianship Act (Alaga), emphasizes that animals have feelings and deserve systemic protection and compassionate care rather than cruelty and abandonment. He adds that existing laws, such as the Animal Welfare Act of 1988, as amended, are no longer sufficient to stop the scale of animal cruelty in the country.
In advocating for the bill, Diokno says decades-old laws need stronger enforcement mechanisms, independent oversight, and modern animal-welfare practices.
He also says humane stray management is essential. Instead of relying on cruel or ineffective measures like outdated and inhumane impounding methods, local governments must implement ethical population control measures like trap-neuter-vaccinate-return (TNVR) programs to protect stray animals. City and municipal pounds must be reformed to ensure stray animals are treated humanely rather than neglected in overcrowded, substandard shelters.
Finally, Diokno argues that cruelty must carry real consequences: stronger penalties are necessary so that animal abuse is taken seriously as a crime rather than brushed off with light fines. Protecting animals, he says, requires an active, enforcement-capable regulatory framework that holds abusers, neglectful owners and noncompliant local authorities accountable.
Salient points of the Alaga bill include:
– The creation of the National Commission on Animal Welfare, an independent national regulatory body with full administrative authority, a dedicated budget, and enforcement powers to oversee animal-welfare regulations and local government unit (LGU) compliance nationwide.
– Stricter penalties and increased fines. The bill significantly updates fines and prison terms for animal cruelty, neglect and abandonment, introducing stiffer imprisonment sentences (up to three to five years in severe cases) and higher monetary fines (ranging up to P200,000).
– Mandatory TNVR and spay/neuter programs. The bill institutionalizes free and subsidized trap-neuter-vaccinate-return programs as the primary strategy for stray population management, explicitly prohibiting lethal, inhumane culling techniques like mass poisoning.
– Reformed city pound standards. The bill sets national operational guidelines for local animal pounds, requiring humane shelter conditions, medical treatment, and extended operating hours so owners can retrieve lost pets.
– Ban on animal blood sports like dog fighting, the illegal dog meat trade, and other exploitative animal entertainment or sports.
– Responsible guardianship education. The bill sets community-level awareness, rabies prevention, and educational mandates regarding responsible pet guardianship.
The bill is now at the House Committee on Agriculture and Food, where it must be consolidated with other pending measures aimed at overhauling the Animal Welfare Act. A sticking point seems to be a jurisdictional matter. Animal-welfare matters are traditionally embedded within the Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Animal Industry, and the establishment of an independent commission would strip it of some of its enforcement and policy powers.
Moreover, animal control, city pounds, and rabies control are decentralized responsibilities managed by LGUs through local veterinarians or health offices. A national commission tasked with policing or standardizing LGU pounds can lead to jurisdictional clashes over local autonomy and funding.
But these very obstacles to the bill’s passage are also at the core of its thesis. You can’t eradicate cruelty to animals by simply raising penalties. We need to overhaul the entire system that enables and feeds it.
