Chel Diokno: Erring children not easily let go under juvenile law

Party-list Rep. Chel Diokno. Photo from the Facebook page of Chel Diokno

MANILA, Philippines — It is not true that children who have committed infractions or have violated the law are allowed to go away easily and scot-free under the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006, Akbayan party-list Rep. Chel Diokno said on Monday.

Diokno, in a statement, allayed fears from people who support calls to bring down the age of criminal responsibility — that children who engage in illegal acts end up as recidivists because they are allegedly protected by existing laws, like Republic Act No. 9344.

According to Diokno, while it is true that children should be held accountable, existing mechanisms provide rehabilitation.

“If there is wrongdoing, there should be accountability — that’s true.  But it is not true that child offenders are easily let go because of the Juvenile Justice Law,” Diokno, speaking in Filipino, said in response to proposals seeking to remove the criminal liability exemptions for children aged 10 to 17.

“Under the law, there is a Bahay Pag-Asa for their rehabilitation.  What we need now — is not amendments to the law — but additional funds and support for this program,” he added.

Diokno said that it seems Senator Robinhood Padilla, who filed the bill seeking to lower the age of criminal responsibility, seeks a society that is harsh to children who are merely victims of existing systems.

“For minors who already understand what they have done, the Supreme Court has placed a ‘discernment determination process’ to ensure that they will be held accountable accordingly,” Diokno said.

READ: De Lima: Lowering age of criminal responsibility to 10 is not justice

“It seems that Sen. Padilla wants a society that is harsh and indifferent.  If we really want to solve crime, let us address broken homes, wrecked schools, and old systems.  Let us choose to be a society that would care and have hope for children,” he added.

Aside from Diokno, former senator and Mamamayang Liberal party-list Rep. Leila de Lima has also spoken out regarding Padilla’s proposal, saying that lowering the age of criminal responsibility is not justice but “abdication,” as it will only force the society to abandon children who have made mistakes.

“A child is not a criminal. A lost child should not be locked up but talked to, cared for, and given hope,” she said on Sunday.

`Broken justice system’

“We do not fix a broken justice system by putting its weight on the smallest, weakest shoulders. We fix it by asking hard questions: Why do some children get involved in crime? Who really benefits from these crimes? Where have we fallen short as a society?” she added.

Padilla is not the first to propose a lower age of criminal responsibility: his ally, former president Rodrigo Duterte, said in January 2019 that he is okay with proposals to bring down the age of criminal responsibility from 15 to 12 years old.

Duterte blamed Senator Francis Pangilinan back then for authoring R.A. No 9344, as it allegedly allowed minors to commit crimes and escape, as they cannot be jailed.

READ: Duterte: It’s OK if 12 is age of criminal responsibility

However, opponents of proposals to lower the age of criminal liability noted that the problem with the current law is that it is not being implemented properly — like a provision that requires the creation of one rehabilitation center for each of the 81 provinces and 33 highly urbanized cities.

As of 2019, there are only 63 rehabilitation centers in the country. /mr