The lower chamber’s Justice panel gave its okay to the House substitute bill seeking to lower the age of criminal liability from 15 to nine, on January 21, Monday.
In a statement, Justice Committee Chair and Oriental Mindoro Representative Salvador “Doy” Leachon hopes to pass the bill before the end of the 17th Congress.
“Recent news and reports show an alarming increase in the number of syndicates using minors to perpetrate criminal acts and it is but the time to pass this bill to protect our children from being used by ruthless and unscrupulous criminal syndicates to evade prosecution and punishment,” he explained.
With this, Leachon’s panel approved the measure that seeks to revoke Republic Act 9344 or the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006 – which exempts children from ages 15 and below from criminal liability.
In his opening speech before the hearing, however, he said that the children will not be labelled as ‘criminals’ but as children in conflict with the law (CICL).
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, even before taking his presidential seat in 2016, already pushed for the lowering of the criminal liability age to nine back in his campaigning days. In relation to this, former President and incumbent House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo also supported it.
The Senate’s Justice Committee is set to hear the measure on Tuesday, but with a higher age of criminal liability — 12 years old — rather than the House’s nine.
Solons’ side
Amidst the approval of the President and the lower House, Vice President Marie Lenor “Leni” Robredo” called on the lawmakers to ‘have mercy’ on the youth,
“Imbes na parusahan natin sila, tulungan natin – tulungan natin na makapag-bagong buhay (Instead of punishing them, let us help them live a new life,” Robredo said in a statement on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Senator Risa Hontiveros, in a statement, said that “lowering the age of criminal liability is criminally short-sighted.”
“Getting tough on children in conflict with the law while being lenient with big-time drug lords, smugglers and plunderers is not getting tough on crime, it is the promotion of a greater crime against our children and a case of not going after the real menace to our country,” she said.
The lawmaker acknowledged that children in conflict with the law (CICL) is a real issue and that she understands the concerns that need to be addressed, “but to simply imprison minors is not the solution.”
“While some of them may have committed grave offenses, and will be held accountable under our laws, many of them simply lost their way due to poverty and lack of opportunities and are looking for chances to be rehabilitated,” she stressed, adding that the government should target big-time drug lords, smugglers, plunderers, and pork barrel lawmakers. She also dropped big names like Peter Lim and the Marcoses.
On the other hand, Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III sees the measure as a reaction to the “call of the times.”
In an exclusive interview with GMA, Sotto said that crime rate worsened when the age of criminal liability was raised to 17 years old in the 13th and 14th Congress.
“At ang nangyari lalo na ‘yung mga sindikato ng droga at criminal syndicates, ginagamit ‘yung mga kabataan (And what is happening is that drug and criminal syndicates use the youth),” he added in the same interview.
In his version of the lowering the criminal liability age bill, the CICL will not be imprisoned, but he called for the strengthening of rehabilitation facilities, which he called “Bahay Pagasa.”
Police’s reaction
Earlier in a media briefing on Monday, Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief, Director General Oscar Albayalde said that they still have to seek legal assistance to talk about the matter, but he said that “I think we would like to support iyang panukala (that measure)” when asked for comment on the issue.
He gave a recent raid by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in Navotas as an example. “Nakita natin (We saw that) as young as 10 years old, you can just imagine, they are being used already as drug runners,” he said.
Albayalde continued that the adults are using the fact that these kids cannot be brought behind bars as an advantage to get away from their crimes. Though he said that he would like to support the lowering of the age of criminal liability, the Philippine top cop stressed that the law should enforce graver offenses for parents who use their own children for drug trade.