The Commission on Human Rights and non-government organizations on Tuesday denounced the approval of a bill lowering the age of criminal liability for heinous crimes to 9.
READ: House bill punishes parents for their children’s offenses
Commissioner Karen Dumpit said any amendments to the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act would only violate the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Child, and other international laws and standards.
“The measure would not only regress but would reverse the trajectory toward the fulfillment of children’s rights,” she said.
Another CHR commissioner, Leah Armamento, said the government was incapable of providing facilities to house children-in-conflict-with-the-law (CICLs) if the bill to lower the age of criminal liability is enacted into law.
While the bill requires the establishment of 114 holding centers for CICLs, there are only 58 Bahay Pag-asa youth centers or “houses of hope” right now, she said.
A Bahay Pag-asa center is a 24-hour child-caring institution established, funded and managed by local government units and licensed or accredited non-government organizations providing short-term residential care for CICL who are above 15 but below 18 while awaiting court disposition of their cases or transfer to other agencies or jurisdictions.
Armamento said the present youth facilities fail to meet the required standards due to a lack of funds.
The Council for the Welfare of Children, Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates, Unchain Children, Civil Society Coalition on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Philippine Action for Youth and Offenders, United Nations Children’s Fund [Unicef], Psychological Association of the Philippines [PA] and Child Rights Network also challenged the House of Representatives’ committee on justice for the approving the bill to lower the minimum age of criminal responsibility to 9 from the current 15 years.
READ: Bill lowering age of criminal liability opposed
Margarita Ardivilla, Unicef-Philippines child protection specialist, told “News to Go” on GMA-7 that the bill, if passed, could do more harm than good to a child offender.
“There is a need for a further study. What is the ratio in the number of the social workers against those children?” she asked.
“There is a serious shortfall of resources. There has to be a point where[in] the government has to make a study and… evaluate. They [lawmakers] must know how much is needed, and how to go about in increasing good practices,” she said.
Instead of amending the age of criminal liability, she said there is a need to fully implement the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act.
The bill in Congress stipulated that if the CICL reaches 18 and fails to be reformed, he or she would be sent to an agricultural camp or training center.
But Ardivilla said “there are no such agricultural lands designed for such purpose. There is no such facility.”
Gabriela party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas asked, “What is this all about, child labor? Is that a concentration camp?”
Liane Alampay of PAP said children who could experience detention are likely to commit another offense once they are released from the centers.
Eule Rico Bonganay, Salinlahi Alliance for Children’s Concerns secretary general and lead convener of Unchain Children, called on lawmakers to stop using children for their political interests.
Amid the outcry against the House bill, presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said the President has not yet specified what age should be the minimum age of criminal liability.
“All he has been saying since the campaign is he wants that lowered. And we will leave that to the lawmakers,” Panelo said during a press briefing.
The current law stipulates that a child 15 years or under at the time of the offense will be exempted from criminal liability.
At the same time, Panelo slammed UN special rapporteur Agnes Callamard for criticizing the bill and accused her of meddling in domestic affairs.
In a post on Twitter, Callamard said: “The lowering of criminal responsibility to 9 years old is Philippines’ new, dangerous, and potentially deadly proposal. Just shameful.”
Panelo replied: “What is shameful is when she intrudes into the sovereignty of this country. She has no business interfering with the affairs of Congress in the first place or with the executive department.”
The Palace official said Callamard only listens to the opposition and the administration’s detractors.
“If you listen to the opposition to the critics, detractors, they cannot say anything good, so they are biased after all,” Panelo said.
“Let them read [the bill]. I’m not defending Congress, what I’m saying is before you open your mouth, you better know your facts,” he added.
Panelo had previously said the bill will prevent syndicates from using children to commit criminal acts.
But a labor group on Tuesday said lowering the age of criminal liability to 9 would give syndicates and criminals a chance to escape criminal liability by laying the blame on innocent children.
“Real criminals would easily escape while innocent children, who are incapable of resisting and evading arrest, [and have no] easy access to legal defense will suffer,” said Julius Cainglet, chairman of the advocacy committee of the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC).
“Considering misguided and abused 9-year old children as criminals will only worsen child labor cases in the Philippines,” Cainglet said.
“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,” he added.
In the Senate, even members of the majority bloc spoke up against lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility to 9.
Sen. Grace Poe said the bill was tantamount to creating “kindergarten prisons.”
Poe noted that as early as 2016, she already filed Senate Resolution 157, opposing any move to lower the minimum age of criminal responsibility.
“Our position remains unchanged,” she said in a text message to reporters.
“We reiterate that lowering the MACR is anti-poor, as most children in conflict with the law come from poor families and have no meaningful access to legal services,” she said.
She said holding the children as young as 9 criminally liable would not address the root causes of juvenile offenses.
If minors are indeed being used by syndicates, then she said law enforcers should go after these syndicates victimizing the children.
“By lowering the age of criminality to 9, we will be creating kindergarten prisons, and instead of rehabilitating children, these will become finishing schools for young criminals, their impressionable minds tutored by the best in the trade,” Poe added.
“Throw these kids in a congested jail with adult criminals, and chances are they will emerge from prison and rejoin society not as reformed and skilled individuals but as bitter young men,” she added.
Senator Juan Edgardo Angara said 9-year-old children are “too young” to face criminal liability.
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian added that lowering the age of criminal liability was not the most effective way to curb criminality.
“Our focus should be on rehabilitating child offenders through more constructive and nurturing means than outright imprisonment. Children belong in schools, not in jails,” he said in a statement.
He said stricter implementation of existing laws that prosecute adults who coerce children to commit crimes would be more effective.
Another majority member, Senator Nancy Binay, has earlier aired her strong opposition to the bill, while Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto questioned the “science” in pegging the age threshold at 9.
Senator Antonio Trillanes IV described the House bill as anti-family, anti-poor and simply unjust and said he would oppose it.
During the first Senate hearing on the proposed minimum age of criminal responsibility, officials from the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Council (JJWC) said differences in mental development between adults and growing children demand different classifications in criminal responsibility and liability.
JJWC Executive Director Tricia Oco said that minority is considered a “temporary disability” given that children are more susceptible to peer pressure, are more impulsive, and cannot be expected to use their discretion like adults.
She noted that scientific reports peg the completion of mental development at 22 years for women and 25 years for men – way above the age of majority (18 years old).
“The entire premise of having a separate set of laws for adult offenders and children in conflict with the law (CICL) is because children cannot be judged the same way as adult,” Senator Risa Hontiveros said.
She said elsewhere in the world, the trend was to increase the minimum age of criminal responsibility, especially in countries where it is set low, as in Australia, India, and Indonesia. With Nat Mariano and Vito Barcelo
