{"id":199046,"date":"2019-01-23T23:27:40","date_gmt":"2019-01-24T04:27:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=199046"},"modified":"2019-01-23T23:27:40","modified_gmt":"2019-01-24T04:27:40","slug":"prrd-comfortable-with-lowering-age-of-criminal-liability-to-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/01\/23\/prrd-comfortable-with-lowering-age-of-criminal-liability-to-12\/","title":{"rendered":"PRRD comfortable with lowering age of criminal liability to 12"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte delivers his speech during the Tricycle Operators and Drivers\u2019 Association (TODA) Summit at the Cuneta Astrodome in Pasay City on January 23, 2019. ALBERT ALCAIN\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— President Rodrigo R. Duterte on Wednesday said he is \u201ccomfortable\u201d with lowering the age of criminal liability to 12 years old.<\/p>\n

Duterte made this remark after the House of Representatives approved on second reading a bill meant to lower the age of criminal liability from 15 years to 12 years, not nine as earlier proposed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s the final decision, I\u2019m comfortable with it,\u201d he told reporters in a chance interview after the Tricycle Operators and Drivers’ Association (TODA) Summit in Pasay City.<\/p>\n

Asked if he would have agreed with the House\u2019s original proposal of nine years as the minimum age of criminal liability, Duterte said he just insisted on 12 years since congressmen could not agree.<\/p>\n

\u201cOo \u2018yung<\/em>\u00a0(the) original was really not below nine, above nine, below 12,\u00a0tapos<\/em>\u00a0(and then) above 12 below 16. Iyon ang original.\u00a0Ibinabalik ko lan<\/em>g (that\u2019s the original. I was just returning it),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSabi ko isauli lang ninyo<\/em>\u00a0(I said just return it to the original) if you cannot agree. Return to the original law. But if you have some other ideas in mind, I\u2019m open to it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Duterte said the original law set the age of criminal liability at 12 years before it was replaced with the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006 (Republic Act 9344), which exempts children 15 years and below from criminal liability.<\/p>\n

\u201cIyon ang<\/em>\u00a0original law\u00a0bago pinakialaman ni<\/em>\u00a0(That was the original law before it was changed by) the one single Filipino lawmaker who did the greatest disservice to his country,\u201d Duterte said, referring to Senator Francis \u201cKiko\u201d Pangilinan who authored the law.<\/p>\n

Duterte earlier called Pangilinan\u2019s law a \u201cstupid law\u201d for giving rise to Filipinos with \u201ccriminal minds.\u201d<\/p>\n

The President, meanwhile, emphasized that as early as nine years, parents should also be conscious of their children\u2019s criminal accountability.<\/p>\n

\u201cGanung edad pa lang, pukpukin na<\/em>\u00a0(As early as that age, they should already be reminded) because they will be ultimately responsible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny violation of law\u00a0ng bata ngayon at nagkulang ‘yung<\/em>\u00a0(committed by children that shows that parents lack) supervision and vigilance\u00a0ng\u00a0<\/em>parents,\u00a0sila ang idedemanda<\/em>\u00a0(they will face charges),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Duterte also stressed anew that minors will not be imposed with imprisonment but given lectures by social workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cHindi naman talaga nakukulong ‘yan. Pupunta lang ‘yan sa<\/em>\u00a0social workers\u00a0para magle-lecture<\/em>\u00a0(They won\u2019t really be imprisoned. They will only go to social workers to listen to lectures),\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

Malaca\u00f1ang earlier said that the Executive Branch will not interfere with Congress in the legislative process.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo also expressed confidence that the House would ensure that due consideration on the protective rights of the child are weighed in on legislating the law.<\/p>\n

Panelo pointed out the intent of the proposed bill is to \u201cprotect children against criminals who victimize and coerce them to become offenders.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— President Rodrigo R. Duterte on Wednesday said he is \u201ccomfortable\u201d with lowering the age of criminal liability to 12 …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":199047,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-199046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}