Child offenders need rescuing, not incarceration

“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.”  — Nelson Mandela, former president of South Africa

WHILE the whole country was entertained at how the 40-year-old boxing legend and senator pummeled a much younger pugilist from the “hood” on Sunday, another senator has also been busy pummeling young offenders in the country by pushing to lower the minimum age of criminal responsibility.

Senate President Vicente Sotto III is proposing that young offenders as young as 12 years be treated as adult criminals. On Wednesday, however, rights advocates were shocked when this was suddenly changed to nine years old.

The committee on justice of the Lower House of Congress met yesterday while the Senate is slated to meet today on this appalling bill against Filipino children.

I am offering two major points with the hope that by the end of this column, everyone would examine this ghastly bill.

First off, the country already has a justice system in place for child offenders. It is the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006. The law covers the different stages involving children at risk and children who are in conflict with the law from prevention to rehabilitation and ultimately, reintegration.

What is needed is the full and effective implementation of this law. Lowering the age of criminal responsibility will not magically solve whatever setbacks the current juvenile justice system has been facing since its enactment into law.

Contrary to the propaganda behind Sotto’s proposed law, child offenders are being held accountable. However, they are remanded in a child-caring facility or more popularly known as Bahay Pag-asa rather than being detained with hardened adult criminals.

If this proposed law is passed, children in conflict with the law will be treated as criminals. Just imagine how scarring that would be for a child to be jailed with hardened adult convicts? Now, why would children be mixed with adult convicts, you ask? This is because there is a dearth of child-caring institutions in most of the local government units in the country. So, when your child is indicted for a crime and awaiting a court hearing, the child will be detained in a regular prison.

There are reasons why children are not allowed to vote, apply for any kind of license, which includes going into contracts like getting married. Scientific study has shown us that children react differently from adults.

“Children and adolescents differ significantly from adults in decision-making, propensity to engage in risky behavior, impulse control, identity development, and overall maturity.” (Psychological Association of the Philippines, 2016)

Those who push for this law argue that lowering the age of criminal responsibility would deter crime syndicates from using children. It will most certainly not. No. It will just encourage crime rings to employ even younger children.

Secondly, by lowering the age of criminal responsibility an act which a child views as only rough-housing or schoolyard banter will take on a whole different interpretation in the courts of law.

Allow me to share with you Patty Sison-Arroyo’s Facebook post on how the courts will perceive “child play.” By the way, she is a member of the Council for the Welfare of Children, an attached agency of the Department of Social Welfare and Development. The post has since gained traction with thousands of shares on social media platforms.

Read on:

Here are the little-known consequences of lowering to nine years old the age of criminal responsibility:

1. Your child’s misbehavior will become a misdemeanor.

* hurts someone during rough play = physical injuries

* takes someone else’s things without permission = theft

* says something bad about another kid = slander

* breaks another kid’s gadget = malicious mischief

* hurts someone by accident = reckless imprudence

And the list goes on.

2. Your child may be arrested on the spot even without a warrant of arrest if your child has just committed, is actually committing, or is attempting to commit a “crime.”

3. Your child may be detained in a detention cell, possibly with adult detention prisoners, if there is no child-caring institution in your locality.

4. If there is “probable cause” (i.e., it looks like your kid committed the crime), a criminal case will be filed against your child, and your child will have to go to court for trial or “diversion” (an alternative way of finding guilt), which may take years to resolve.

5. If you’re lucky, the case may end up with a child-friendly court – i.e., there is a stuffed toy in the waiting room, some crayons and coloring books, the judge will not put on the black robe, and your kid can testify in front of a video camera from the judge’s chambers right beside the courtroom.

6. If your child is convicted, he or she will not be imprisoned but will remain in the custody of a child-caring institution until the court is satisfied that your child has reformed.

7. After having gone through all of the above, a process which has the potential to destroy the soul and spirit of a full grown adult, your child will be released back to you.

Together with rights advocates across the country, I call on both houses of Congress to instead consider the following:

1. Punish the crime syndicates who take advantage of children, not the children who need to be rescued, supported, and rehabilitated.

2. Push for the full and effective implementation of the law so that both children who commit crimes and their victims are assisted and supported.

3. Instead of lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility, support local government units in providing prevention, intervention, and diversion programs for children.

Let us not subject our children to this since this law or amendment to the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006 will most like affect the children of the poor and marginalized sectors, as we have seen from the ongoing war against drugs.

‘Unity March’

THE election period for the 2019 mid-term elections started on Sunday. Here in Cagayan de Oro, it was opened with a so-called “Unity March.” Started with a march, local candidates held an interfaith prayer rally and capped it off with a peace covenant signing at Kiosko Kagawasan in Divisoria.

The Commission on Elections in Northern Mindanao, officials of Camp Alagar and the Army’s 4th Infantry Division, and city hall employees attended Sunday’s activity. Camp Alagar spokesman Surki Sereñas posted on his Facebook wall: “United for honest, credible, and peaceful 2019 elections.”

Scanning through my Facebook newsfeed on Sunday, I saw photos of the event. I saw a picture of Centrist Democratic Party candidates posing with administration candidates of PDP-Laban.

Curiously, I did not see erstwhile political kingpin Dongkoy Emano and his supporters at the event. Now, I know you’d say to lay off him since he’s too old for such an event. But I could also return the question back to you. Why is he running if he can’t give his time for such an event?

I say that the message of the unity walk should be that even though they are political opponents this May, they are united in wanting to serve the people of Cagayan de Oro.

Are they too good for the electorate that they can’t get their butts off their stately mansions? As commissioner Luie Guia posted on his wall, the mid-term polls are first and foremost, for the voters.

I commented on Sereñas’s Unity March post, rhetorically asking if the absence of some candidates meant that they did not want an honest, credible, and peaceful May polls. First, he laughed at such non sequitur but then, good man that he is, he followed up by saying: “Of course not… ang uban basin naay equally important commitment.”

The last part of the sentence reminded me of Dongkoy’s default excuse for his absences when he served (or the lack of it) as vice mayor of the city — “attending to more important matters.”

This coming May, Dongkoy will be running again for vice mayor. I repeat my question from my September 2015 column: When you’re the vice mayor, what could possibly be more important than presiding over the city council? When he was vice mayor, he attended a total of TWO regular sessions. He attended only the inaugural and the closing sessions of the city council.

If these candidates can’t give us their time for an activity this simply because of “more important matters,” why run at all? Pfft.

Keep off the teachers

IT always amazes me how our uniformed services manage to target unarmed groups and tag them as threats to the Republic.

Year in and year out, we see dissenting groups being branded as either communist legal fronts or sympathizers of the revolution. They seem to be devoid of the capacity to distinguish legitimate dissent and armed insurgency.

A news report from ABS-CBN online news on Sunday quoted Joselyn Martinez, Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) national chairperson, as saying that police officers went to their school in Malabon on Thursday to ask the school principal for the names of members of ACT.

On Sunday, a copy of the supposed order to inventory members of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) with the signature of a Chief Insp. Rexson Layug of the Manila Police District Intelligence, circulated on Facebook.

In the same news article, National Capital Region Police Office Director Guillermo Eleazar has denied ordering the “school visits.” However, the intelligence chief of the Zambales provincial police confirmed the memo on the ACT is genuine and that they were “just following orders.”

First, the memo in direct violation of the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers. Second, the right of every citizen of the Republic to self-organization, freedom of expression and assembly, and the right to privacy are enshrined and guaranteed in our Constitution. Well, that is unless Congress changed it over the New Year.

Third, a simple Google search would show you that ACT is a listed organization with the Securities and Exchange Commission plus it is recognized by both the Civil Service Commission and the Department of Education. So, what’s next — an inventory of people inside CSC and Deped who recognize the legitimacy of ACT?

What’s the matter? Aren’t you contented of using public schools in hinterlands as de facto camps of paramilitary and soldiers? Now, you’re going after teachers, too?

In a statement, ACT slammed the order to inventory their members as part of the Duterte administration’s grand fascist scheme to suppress all forms of opposition.

I couldn’t agree more. Right off the bat, this administration has been consistent in stifling legitimate dissent. It has been using Marcosian means to silence anybody who has grown cojones to stand up against it.

If you can’t lay your hands off the public schools in the boondocks, at least, keep off the public teachers. Remember, their wage increases were postponed because Digong Dada thought it best to increase your salaries first.

You are all government workers. You share a common goal. You have sworn to serve and protect the Republic. So, I’d like to remind you that you should serve and protect the people not just a certain sector of powerful people.

As I have posted on my Facebook wall a week ago: I do not hope for government workers to do their job. I expect it.