A lawmaker in the country wants to make ghosting someone there “emotional abuse,” with penalties that could include mandatory community service. Ghosting, defined as when someone cuts off all forms of online and phone communication, can “activate the same pathways in the brain as physical pain,” spokesman Arnolfo Teves Jr. wrote. in his explanatory note accompanying the proposal, which was tweeted this week by One News. “The ambiguity with ghosting is that there is no real closure between the parties concerned and therefore, it can be likened to a form of emotional cruelty and should be punished as emotional abuse because of the trauma it causes to the ‘ghosting party.’ “, the deputy wrote. Although no penalty is specified in the proposal, Tevez told CNN that he did not believe the penalty should be “severe. “We can impose a community service sentence for offenders to realize that ghosting is not right,” he said, arguing that ghosting can also affect an employee’s productivity. Representative Teves Jr. wrote that ghosting should be considered “emotional abuse”. Twitter/@onenewsph The memo included that ghosting could be considered “a form of emotional cruelty and should be punished as emotional abuse.” Twitter/@onenewsph One News posted the lawmaker’s explanatory note on Twitter. Twitter/@onenewsph The offense will only apply where two people are in a “dating relationship” – either living together or “being romantically involved over time and on an ongoing basis during the course of the relationship”, the explanatory note said. Others with ignored text messages will not be covered by the proposed ghosting ban. The bill appears unlikely to pass in a country facing more pressing social issues, leaving critics to decry the move as a publicity stunt. “It’s a calculated move to become popular and be part of the public debate,” Ateneo de Manila University’s Arjan Aguirre told the Washington Post. The report noted that Tevez recently made a controversial but attention-grabbing move to rename an airport in the country after former dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
