Legal Research 4.docx

LEGAL RESEARCH/ LEGAL WRITING This legal opinion is with regards to the amendment of the law governing the age of criminal exemption in the Philippines. The House Bill No. 6052, titled "An Act Strengthening the Juvenile Justice System in the Philippines," seeks to lower the age of criminal responsibility from 15 to 12 years of age, provided that criminal responsibility attaches only when the minor "acted with discernment." As a law student, it is my opinion that the law should not be further amended as I deem the proposed age to be irrationally decided. The following statements are according to child-development experts, Dr. James Farrow, associate professor of medicine and pediatrics at University of Washington School of Medicine, director of the Division of Adolescent Medicine at the UW Medical Center, and director of Nathan Hale High School's Teen Health Center; Dr. Jim Owens, medical director for the Department of Juvenile Rehabilitation; and Dr. William Womack, child psychiatrist at Children's Hospital and consultant at Echo Glen Children's Center (a juvenile rehabilitation institution): “At 14 or 15, the normal child begins to look at the complexity of rightness and wrongness. They understand few things are pure, and that sometimes we follow the rules because it's the right thing, and sometimes you don't follow a rule because it isn't the right thing to do.” "Generally a child under 14 is going to be clearly less mature in terms of brain functioning, than a kid over 14. With kids under 14, there's good reason to believe they are cognitively immature enough that they are not thinking like an adult. It can be decided, based upon their expert statement, that the current exempting age of below 15 years old is only appropriate. The age 12 is too young for a child to weigh the consequences of his/her actions, especially if these actions are copied only from examples witnessed from the environment they grew up in. “With the current state of our justice system and the poor condition of our prisons and detention centers, placing a child with incarcerated criminals will likely encourage criminal leanings instead of rehabilitation,” Senator Benigno Paolo “Bam” Aquino IV, chairman of the Senate committee on youth, said in a statement.

The problems of street children and juvenile delinquency are related social dilemmas. Exposed to criminal elements, children are vulnerable to prostitution, involvement in drugs and commission of crimes. Most street children have become delinquents either out of necessity, because of poverty, or by force, because of syndicates. Either way, it is beyond their control.

The government focusing on imposing the criminal liability on these children at such young age does not exactly establish its concern for the welfare of the Filipino youth who are considered the future of our country. These children are in need of guidance and rehabilitation. Instead of concentrating on imprisoning children, the government should just look at reforms improving juvenile delinquency facilities or even increasing penalties to their parents. Another important detail mentioned by Senator Aquino is the current condition of the prisons and detention centers. According to audit reports for the year 2016 posted by the Commission on Audit on their website, the country's jails are already overpopulated by 511 percent as the number of inmates ballooned to 126,946 as of the end of 2016 while the total ideal jail capacity remains at 20,746 inmates. The audit body said this overcrowding in the country's district jails, city jails, municipal jails, extension jails, and female dormitories violates BJMP's own “Manual on Habitat, Water, Sanitation and Kitchen in Jails” as well as the United Nations' “Minimum Standard Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.” The COA noted that under the BJMP manual, the ideal habitable floor for each inmate is 4.7 square meters and the ideal maximum number of inmates per cell should only be 10. The audit body said the congestion in jails are already resulting in “health and sanitation problems [and] increased gang affiliation of inmates.” “To sustain survival, inmates hold on to gangs or 'pangkat' where they find protection, network of social support and most important, access to material benefits, which are scarce in highly congested facilities,” the COA said in its report. For this reason, juvenile delinquents are often not segregated from hardened adult criminals when put in jail. Imagine the situation these children would be in, from living through the streets and then placed in a more intolerable environment in jail. After their release, they return to the streets even more knowledgeable of crimes – increasing the possibilities that these young offenders would become chronic delinquents and eventually hardened criminals. All things considered,