Could Filipino children as young as 10 years old be held liable for a crime they committed? This bill approved by the Philippines’ House Committee on Justice today seeks to make that possible.
The panel led by Oriental Mindoro Rep. Salvador Leachon reviewed and approved this morning House Bill 505, a substitute bill that lowers the age of criminal liability from 15 years old to 9 years old.
Authored by Tarlac Rep. Victor Yap, it states that those who committed a crime at 9 years old or under shall be exempt from criminal liability but will have to undergo an intervention program.
Those above 9 years old and under 18 years old can technically be exempted too unless he or she was deemed to have acted “with discernment.” If it is proven that they were aware of the crime they committed, they will be subjected to the appropriate proceedings.
In the House Bill’s introduction, Yap claimed that the number of children violating the law has been increasing.
“Sad to say, the minors are getting bolder and braver. These young people has (sic) emboldened themselves and criminal syndicates has (sic) capitalized on the age 15 as being free of criminal liability. Hence, crimes against poverty and in some cases rape, murder and prostitution are committed by these young people,” he wrote.
Justice panel chair Rep. Leachon stressed this point while announcing their decision earlier today.
“It is but the time to pass this bill to protect your children from being used by ruthless and unscrupulous criminal syndicates to evade prosecution and punishment,” Leachon said, as quoted by GMA News.
The lawmaker said that 9 years old was the age of criminal liability for 70 years until this was amended by RA 9344 or the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act in 2006 which increased it to the current 15 years old, Radyo Inquirer reported.
Leachon said that the goal was not to detain minors but to reform them. Those deemed guilty of committing a crime will be brought to Bahay Pag-asa (House of Hope), a rehabilitation center for minors, or agricultural centers and industrial parks by the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Bureau of Corrections, and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is in favor of this change. In April 2017, he blamed the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act for producing “people of criminal minds.”
His allies have expressed support for it as well. Last year, Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III filed a bill that seeks to lower the age of criminal liability to 13 years old.
House Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, also a Duterte ally, also expressed approval of House Bill 505 on Saturday, the Philippine Star wrote.
Likewise, Philippine National Police chief Director General Oscar Albayalde that he is in favor of lowering the age of criminal liability to 9 years old, RMN reported.
However, the amendment has its critics as well.
Vice President Leni Robredo, who is part of the opposition Liberal Party, said in her radio show that lawmakers should have mercy on the youth and that the government should be trying to help them instead of punishing them.
Human rights advocates have also spoken out against the bill. On Friday, UNICEF (The United Nations International Children’s Fund) said that the proposed amendment is an act of violence against children.
“Children in conflict with the law are already victims of circumstance, mostly because of poverty and exploitation by adult crime syndicates,” UNICEF representative to the Philippines Lotta Sylwander said in a statement, according to ABS-CBN News.
House Bill 505 will still need to pass two more readings before it can be sent to the president for enactment.
