INVOLVING children in criminal or illicit activities is one of the worst forms of child labor. Our present laws clearly point to the children’s parents, guardians and most especially criminal syndicates who victimize children as accountable for illegal or illicit activities that involve children. Thus classifying misguided and abused nine-year-old children as criminals is, well, misguided.
The prohibition against the worst forms of child labor under Republic Act (RA) 9231 (Special Protection of Children Against Child Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act, as amended) Section 12-D indicates that: “No child shall be engaged in the worst forms of child labor.”
The phrase “worst forms of child labor” shall refer to any of the following: “…(3) The use, procuring or offering of a child for illegal or illicit activities, including the production and trafficking of dangerous drugs and volatile substances prohibited under existing laws.”
Masterminds would easily escape criminal liability by laying the blame on innocent children, who are incapable of resisting and evading arrest, nor easy access to legal defense. This will artificially increase the incidence of child labor.
At age nine, a child has had no chemistry subjects, thus would be unable to mix components to create an illegal substance. A child would have no access to the same, unless led into the lion’s den by abusive adults.
Philippine laws call for the protection of children and in case of abuse, their rehabilitation and reintegration to mainstream society. Section 1 of RA 9231 states that it shall be the policy of the State to protect and rehabilitate children gravely threatened or endangered by circumstances which affect or will affect their survival and normal development and over which they have no control.
We should not punish our own children for society’s failure to care for, guide and bring up the child in the way the child should go.
