(Eagle News) — Several senators opposed the lowering of the age of criminal liability, with one saying an “iron fist ” was not the solution to the problem.
Senator Kiko Pangilinan, author of the Juvenile Justice Welfare Act that pegs the age of criminal liability at 15 years old, said in the first place, “poverty and hunger are the roots of the problems of these children.”
“Additional pay and income, jobs, lower prices of goods, and being able to finish their education are the solutions, and not jailing our kids and mistreating them. An iron fist is not the solution. We should improve how we run our economy so that the lives of every Filipino family will improve and take good care of our children. That is what the administration should be focusing on,” Pangilinan said.
Senator Grace Poe agreed.
According to Poe, lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility was “anti-poor as most children in conflict with the law come from poor families and have no meaningful access to legal services.”
For Senator Joel Villanueva, “instead of punishing children, legislators should work on a policy to place more responsibility (on) adults who use children to commit crimes such as syndicates.”
“If our problem is that a lot of children are being used to commit crime, then maybe what we should do as policy is to increase the penalty of adults who used kids to commit crime and to improve our intelligence unit and improve our capacity to reduce crime instead of penalizing children who are in fact victims in these situations,” Villanueva said.
He said “we should also improve our strategies in rehabilitating juvenile delinquents.”
In opposing the lowering of the age of criminal liability, Senator Leila de Lima noted that children in conflict with the law were actually “victims.”
She said such an act “will not end the incidence and cycle of crime; it will aggravate the situation.”
Senator Risa Hontiveros agreed.
She said children “cannot be judged the same way as adults,” adding that there was “government data” that proves the same.
She added the Philippines was a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, “whose monitoring body recommends higher minimum ages of criminal responsibility.”
“So given that the global movement is upwards and not downwards, Bakit tayo paatras? Why do we want to slide back to the minimum, or even below the minimum? Is this a race to the bottom?” she said.
The House justice panel has approved a bill lowering of the age of criminal liability from 15 years old to nine years old.
In a previous statement, Speaker Gloria Arroyo said this was in support of the request of President Rodrigo Duterte, who has lamented the use by criminal syndicates of children as drug couriers, among others.
