I write this in reaction to the online survey of the House of Representatives 17th Congress on http://www.congress.gov.ph/ regarding public opinion on lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility from fifteen (15) years to nine (9) years.
In the 1980s, my grandmother Atty Esperanza G. Valenzona ministered to the juvenile delinquents at the Cebu City Jail. With her friends, they provided literacy classes, conducted feeding programs and instituted neighborhood scouting. They believed that children deserve to be provided with opportunities for growth and development to become morally upright and productive citizens of the world.
She was part of the advocates who lobbied for the passing of Republic Act No. 9344 known as "Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006" which celebrated its 10th year recently. This law recognizes the vital role of children and youth in nation building. A child is defined as a person under the age of eighteen (18) years. In Section 6, it states that a child fifteen (15) years or under at the time of the commission of the offense shall be exempt from criminal liability and be subjected to an intervention program. Sections 12-17 mentions the roles of the family, the education system, mass media, local councils for the protection of children, the local social welfare and development workers and the Sangguniang Kabataan. Hence, the protection of children in conflict with the law (CICL) is the responsibility of a whole community, and not just of a single agency or department. It involves multi-sectoral cooperation of different government agencies and non-government organizations.
In Cebu, we have the Operation Second Chance which functions as the Bahay Pag-asa (House of Hope), which currently houses approximately 200 children. Like many of Philippine laws which are very good and comprehensive on paper, there is much difficulty in implementation of the law, especially if the programs and services are not funded by government budget. Hence, instead of changing the law, in my humble opinion as a child advocate, we must strive first to fully implement all the stipulations in this law before we consider it as a failure and lower the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 15 years old to nine (9) years old. After all, the children and youth have a vital role to play in the community, and they have rights to survival, development, protection and participation.
A jail cell is no place for a child, so long as programs in jail do not offer true rehabilitation for the offender. It only becomes a school for crime.
I enjoin you to vote NO in this congress online survey. Give the Filipino child a chance. Children would not be in conflict with the law if they were given basic needs for survival and development. Please do it now, it would take less than a minute. Many things can wait, the child cannot.
