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[av_heading heading=’Why target kids? Agency slams bill lowering age of criminal liability ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
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ILOILO City – Going after delinquent children will not solve crimes, an attached agency of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) stressed.
A House bill seeks to lower the minimum age of criminal liability to nine years old from the current 15 years old.
“Why not pass a law that will penalize (crime) syndicates (who use children)?” said Katherine Joy Lamprea, a social worker for the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Council (JJWC). “These children commit offenses because they are victims of circumstances.”
House Bill No. 2, titled “Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility Act,” seeks to amend the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006, or Republic Act (RA) 9344. It is authored by House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and Rep. Fredenil Castro (Capiz, 2nd District).
Early incarceration is “most harmful and counterproductive,” stressed Lamprea.
And it won’t help much in crime reduction, she claimed — 98.46 percent of all crimes reported to the police are committed by adults, not children.
Lowering the criminal liability age is against the best interest of children and the Philippines’ obligations as party to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, added Lamprea.
“What we need is to meet their four basic rights: survival, protection, development, and participation,” she said. “Paano na kon ma-incarcerate ini sila? Then those four (rights) will be useless.”
The proposal also “ignores scientific proofs on child development,” the JJWC noted. Citing a study, it said the human brain continues to develop until a person reaches 21 and matures as late as 25 years old.
Moreover, it is “unconstitutional…a clear violation of the policy of the State to defend the right of children to special protection from all forms of neglect, abuse, cruelty, and exploitation,” said the JJWC.
The agency also pointed out that RA 9344 requires all provinces and highly urbanized cities in the country to build Bahay Pag-asa facilities that cost around P20 million each, but compliance with this is low.
“Only a few local chief executives are creating programs for children,” Lamprea lamented.
But she noted that the number of children in conflict with the law being remitted at the Regional Rehabilitation Center for the Youth in the island province of Guimaras has decreased in the past three years./PN
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