MANILA – Malacañang on Thursday defended the proposed legislation to lower the age of criminal responsibility in the country after Miss Universe 2018 Catriona Gray expressed her opposition toward it.
Gray – an advocate of children’s rights – earlier said the government should focus on the reasons why children get involved in crimes, adding that their minds were not yet developed to determine the consequences of their actions.
“She should be educated,” Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said in a news briefing when told of Gray’s opinion.
“She may have been misinformed of the facts given that the opposition to the lowering comes from ‘yung mga dating kritiko ng administrasyon,” he added.
Panelo stressed that children with criminal liability would be rehabilitated instead of being sent to jail.
“We are precisely focusing on the problem because the problem is they are engaged in crimes. What will we do? We will have to rehabilitate them, learn why they committed these crimes and then put them back to society,” Panelo said.
The House of Representatives had approved on third and final reading House Bill 8858, which would lower the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 15 years old to 12.
Under the proposed law, a child aged 12 to 18 years old who commits a serious crime would be sent to the Intensive Juvenile Intervention and Support Center inside the nearest youth care facility (Bahay Pag-asa).
Several lawmakers and child rights groups had criticized the previous proposal to lower the age of criminal liability at nine.
They pointed to the lack of evidence and data that children are responsible for the increase in crime rates committed in the country as well as studies showing discernment does not develop until 16 years old.
President Rodrigo Duterte, however, did not see anything wrong with setting the age of criminal responsibility at nine, saying it was the original minimum age under the Revised Penal Code.
This changed in 2006 when the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act was passed as the law exempts youth offenders 15 years old and below from criminal liability.
Duterte said the current law has laid the foundation for the emergence of a new generation of criminals, prompting his congressional allies to push for the lowering of the minimum age of criminal responsibility. (With GMA News/PN)
