Malacañang on Saturday remained firm on its stand to lower the minimum age of criminal liability to nine years old even as most Filipinos preferred to keep the status quo at 15 years old based on the first quarter Pulse Asia survey.
Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella said lowering the age of criminal liability would help ensure that young Filipinos would be responsible for their actions.
“The stance of the President remains unchanged,” Abella said.
“Lowering the age of criminal liability is part of the legislative agenda of President Duterte as a means to ensure that the Filipino youth would accept responsibility for their actions and be subjected to government intervention programs,” he added.
Abella said the government will embark on a communication campaign to educate the public on its proposal.
“What the survey shows is that there is still a lot of work to be done, especially in explaining to Filipinos, on the rationale behind lowering the minimum age of criminal liability,” he said.
The 2017 First Quarter Ulat ng Bayan survey showed that a little over half of Filipinos, or 55 percent, favored keeping the minimum age of criminal liability at 15 years old—an opinion shared by big pluralities to sizable majorities across geographic areas and socio-economic classes.
Only nine percent favored Duterte’s suggestion for a return to 9 years old while 20 percent of the respondents said they are open to lowering the criminal age to 12 years old.
In previous speeches, Duterte blamed the Juvenile Justice Act and its author, Liberal Party President Senator Francis Pangilinan, of “producing generations of youth offenders who grew up without respect for the law.”
“Now that they’re older, we have produced people who are of criminal minds. And that is why it is hard to stop the drug problem now,” the President said.
Duterte said the law allowed youth offenders to walk free if they are below 15 years old, “regardless of the gravity of the offense.”
Pangilinan authored Republic Act 9344, or the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006, which raised the minimum age of criminal responsibility (MACR) from nine to 15. The law states that if children are caught in possession of illegal substances, the social welfare department must take them into custody for rehabilitation.