Children as criminals? Bishop calls lowering age of criminal liability ‘unchristian’

A law that seeks to lower the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 15 to nine years old is unchristian.

This is according to Bishop of Kalookan Pablo Virgilio David who expressed his opposition against the move, saying that the government cannon even properly hold adults liable for their crimes.

A substitute bill amending Republic Act No. 9344, or the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006 to lower the minimum age of criminal responsibility to nine from 15 years old is being filed by lawmakers.

“Now we want to hold nine-year-old children-in-conflict-with-the-law criminally liable as well?” David said in a report posted in CBCP News.

“For what? For being born in an environment of abuse? For being neglected or abused by abusive parents and being left to fend for themselves out in the streets? For being used by abusive adults in criminal activities?” he said.

As of this writing, the House of Representatives approved on second reading the bill lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility or (MACR) to 12 years old, instead of nine, following strong opposition from various groups including leaders from the Catholic Church.

Bishop David said that if the bill becomes a law, “this Congress should be remembered in Philippine history as the most naive, heartless, and unchristian Congress we have ever had”.

According to House Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the said law is what the President wants and has been pushing.

Contrary to claims that the bill if passed into law will jail the child offenders, the bill states that children aged nine to 18 who have committed crimes like murder, homicide, rape and drug abuse to be committed to an Intensive Intervention and Support Center (IJISC), a special facility within the youth care facility called Bahay Pag-asa.

Here, the child-offenders would undergo a more intensive multi-disciplinary intervention program, upon written authorization of their parents or foster parents, or by petition for involuntary commitment by the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

According to reports, the measure slashes prison terms for children in conflict with the law, with detention periods lowered two degrees than what is prescribed by law.

The measure will also cut sentences for crimes punishable with a fixed period of detention by two-thirds, while also slashing life imprisonment to a 12-year term.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines has expressed their opposition to the said bill.

The bishops proposed that stiffer penalties should be imposed for those who exploit children in the perpetration of crime instead of lowering the age of criminal liability.

“The sins and failings of the young and immature should not mar the possibilities of one’s future or stand forever in the name of an honorable and noble reputation that can, in later years, be very well built,” the CBCP said in a statement issued in 2017.