Crimresponsibility.docx

REACTION PAPER The house approves bill to lower age of criminal responsibility to twelve (12) years old, Salvador “Doy” Leachon, chairman of the justice committee justifies the bill saying that the bill is a pro-children and it aims to protect the children from the drug syndicates from using them as drug couriers. He was interviewed by the ANC and said “They have to read the law in its entirety to understand why this is a pro-children legislation.” he further added “If the criminal syndicates would realize they would no longer be exempt, children would be spared from being exploited”. The approved bill offers “rehabilitation”, he said, and obliges the child offender’s parents to undergo a mandatory intervention program and if they failed to do so, then they would be apprehended and will be imprisoned for six (6) months. Leachon articulates that with the approved bill, they are not putting the children in jail but in reformative institutions to correct their ways and giving them a good life that they deserve to have. Instead of branding them as criminals they are called children in conflict with the law. “If ever they will be in conflict with the law, they will be protected, reformed and rehabilitated in order for them to be a full human being. The state has always the right to defend them because we believe nationbuilding should be made with children,” he then concluded. At the current state of our country wherein the youth especially the street children are facing cruelty, poverty and abuse would always tend to go for easy money. Adolescent stage is crucial, it is a deciding period of a person wherein certain experiences could make or break a teen. Without the proper care and education that they need, their juvenile minds are easily persuaded by the drug syndicates. Should the answer be lower the age of criminal responsibility? Isn’t this a social and moral obligation of the parents and or the state? Apprehending an adolescent just like the legal aged offenders would be traumatic for a twelve (12) year old. The congress could do better, instead of lowering the age of criminal responsibility, why not focus on social workers that could prevent them from making bad decisions. Dr. Liane Peña Alampay, a developmental psychologist said that our state is currently suffering from lack of funds and social workers. Why should we expect that this bill could be as effective as it promised? The government has only set up 58 operational Bahay Pag-asa out of 114 required by the law. Prevention is always better than cure, from my vantage point, I would say that instead of creating

a bill that would exploit the neglected children, the state should focus on the proximate cause of this issue which is lack of resources to sustain the basic needs of a healthy child. According to the Constitution, The state shall defend the right of children to assistance, including proper care and nutrition, and special protection from all forms of neglect, abuse, cruelty, exploitation and other conditions prejudicial to their development. If the said rights were strictly implemented, the possibility of committing crime could lessen. Children of that age should not be taught to fear the consequences instead teach them to become a better person so that they will not fear any penalties for they will abide from the existing laws.