(We yield this space to the statement of the Center for Women’s Resources due to its timeliness. – Ed.)
BACK to Herod’s time. This is how the attempt to railroad the lowering of the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 15 years old to 12 years old, previously nine years old in the earlier version of the proposal, is being perceived.
The proposal makes children more defenseless and exposes them to abuses, given the current human rights situation where women and children are subjected to various forms of attacks. Even with the current minimum age of criminal responsibility of 15 years old, more than 26,000 children have been tagged as “drug surrenderees” and have been treated like ordinary adult criminals. More than 70 minors have been killed during drug operations.
In the countryside, more than half a million, majority of whom are women and children, have been forced to evacuate because of militarizatio. Worse, at such a young age, they are subjected to trauma, red-tagging, harassment, and even killings. Such attacks could be likened to those against children during King Herod of Judea who ordered the slaying of infants of Bethlehem.
Lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility is not the answer to curb crime or to discipline poor Filipino children. Because the age of criminality is not the problem. It is a mere effect of the country’s governance. Instead of alleviating poverty, the government signs the TRAIN law that soars to 6.7 percent the inflation rate. Instead of ensuring a higher budget for education and health, the government invests more on debt servicing, military, and police spending. The combined budget is 20 percent higher than the budget for health and 134 percent higher than the budget allocated for social security, welfare and employment. Instead of providing regular decent jobs to workers, the government maintains the neoliberal framework of contractual work.
Access to education and health is so urban-centric, limited, and costly that despite a free public education, 3.6 million children and youth were reported as out-of-school in 2017. Since the government offers limited, low-skilled, and low-paid job opportunities for their parents, children need to augment their meager family income. In 2015, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that two million children are in hazardous child labor. Lacking of an effective social protection, there is an estimate of 45,000 to 50,000 street children in 2010, according to Philippine Institute for Development Studies. The PSA has even recorded that in the past six years, children are one of the poorest sectors in the country.
Once again, the government washes its hands from its accountability and instead point the blame to the supposedly hope of the country’s future – the children. As a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Philippine government has the obligation “to ensure that children grow up in a safe environment protected from crime and violence.”
The continuing militaristic approach of the government portrays a backward leadership and governance. Using iron hands instead of lifting a hand to improve the condition of the Filipino children will only result to more human rights violations. The government should focus on addressing the social ills that force people to commit crimes to survive.
