Duterte, Cayetano want minimum age of criminal liability lowered to 12

The tandem of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and Senator Alan Peter Cayetano is pushing for reforms in the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act, particularly on lowering the minimum age of criminal liability to 12-years-old from 15-years-old.

Duterte said that minors are being exploited by organized crime groups.

“Sobra na ang gulo, kaya sobra na ang hirap ng tao. In many cases, drug traffickers use minors as couriers, a modus operandi made rather convenient by the law. Often times, these guys just go scot-free and grow up with no sense of accountability. It’s time to bring back order and keep our kids off the streets as we wage an all-out war against organized crime,” Duterte said on Tuesday in a statement.

The presidential hopeful said that the minimum age of criminal liability should be lowered to 12 because moral autonomy supposedly starts as early as age 10.

On his part, Cayetano said that minor offenders will be brought to separate detention facilities where they would be given rehabilitation, reintegration, and after-care services so that they can be reintegrated back to the society.

“Sa kamay na bakal na pupuksa sa krimen, may kamay na aaruga sa nais magbago at magbalik loob sa batas. Ito ang tatak Duterte-Cayetano,” the vice presidential aspirant said.

Other reforms that they would like to implement include the imposition of a higher penality against adults who would use minors in their criminal activities and the insertion of a new provision that those offenders above 15 but below 18-years-old, and were not first-time violators, will be treated as adult violators. JE