ILOILO CITY-The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Field Office VI and the Regional Juvenile Justice and Welfare Council (RJJWC) jointly called for the scrapping of house bills which seek to lower the minimum age of criminal responsibility.
“A nine-year-old child has a very young mind. There are even studies which suggest that our brains grow until the age 25,” said Katherine Joy Lamprea of the JJWC.
The RJJWC and the DSWD6 gathered members of the media recently in a forum to highlight the observance of the Juvenile Justice Consciousness Week with the theme, “Rehab, hindi rehas: Itaguyod ang RA 10630.”
It can be recalled that lawmakers have filed several bills seeking to revert the effects of Republic Act (RA) Number 9344 or the Juvenile Delinquency Act of 2006, which raised the minimum age of criminal liability from 9 years to 15 years old.
RA 10630, is an act Strengthening the Juvenile Justice System in the Philippines, amending RA 9344.
Lamprea cited the following reasons why they are pushing for the non-passage of the housebill:
• Early incarceration is the most harmful and counter-productive measure in preventing child re-offending
• The most effective diversionary strategy is to remove children from the youth justice system by significantly raising the age of criminal responsibility
• Lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility and putting children in jail will not address the issue of criminal syndicates using children to commit crimes
• 98.46 percent of all crimes reported to the PNP are crimes committed by adults not children
• Lowering the age of criminal responsibility is against the best interest of the child. They would be in cramped, disease-ridden and filthy facilities with inadequate food, prone to physical, sexual and psychological abuse, will be in the company of adult murderers, rapists and pedophiles.
• It is a move which will burden both the national and local governments
• Human brain continues to develop until 21 and matures to as late as 25 years old
• Early onset of offending may be caused by impairment of brain structure and functioning due to childhood poverty and abuse
• Lowering of the minimum age of criminal responsibility is against our legal obligations as state party to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
• It is also unconstitutional since it clearly violates the policy of the state to defend the right of children to special protection from all forms of neglect, abuse, cruelty and exploitation

EXPERIENCE SAYS IT’S NOT WRONG TO GIVE CICL ANOTHER CHANCE
Psychologist Robert Paul Joseph Eclar, assigned at the Regional Rehabilitation Center for Youth (RRCY), said that they believe in the capacity of children to change their life’s course.
“We. at the RRCY, have seen Children in Conflict with the Law (CICL) transform. We have former CICL who now have become teachers, seafarers, policemen and social workers,” said Eclar./dswd6/May R. Castillo