If kids are criminals, elect them

Robin Padilla. Played Anak ni Baby Ama in the movie. Sixteen. Prison. Beaten. Dragged to the electric chair. Bzzzzztt! Fried like lumpia.

Great drama. Touching stuff. He stabbed people because society made him. Critics said: “Robin really gets it: Life as a kid with no way out.”

Supposed to be tragic. A warning: Don’t do this to kids. But Robin watched himself play the son of a 16-year-old who got zapped and said: “Beautiful story. Let’s make kids criminally liable at 10.”

Maybe too many fight scenes rattled the brain.

His bill masquerades as tough love. Patriotic. Heroic. It’s none of that. It’s lazy. Easy to throw kids in jail. Hard to raise them. Takes brains, guts, strategy to fix the world so they don’t end up there. He wants the cinematic shortcut: skip the system, roll credits.

Robin’s a senator now. Every morning he asks: How do I get TRIBUNE to cover me today? Controversy equals relevance. Marijuana bill, divorce, criminally liable 10-year-olds.

But is it really Robin you elected? Or the stunt double? Maybe the brain stayed with the guy who got blown up in the background. Robin just kept the scars. He needs to be loud. Shocking. Like Duterte. But shocking without the brains.

If outrage fades, he’ll pick a hotter taboo. Baby Ama Jr.: Lock ’Em All Up. Nobody watches.

Maybe Quiboloy buys a copy. Robin thinks he’s fighting crime. Really, he’s just sending Quiboloy a care package: “Don’t worry, Pastor, we’ll stock the jails for you.”

If a law makes an accused sexual predator grin in his cell, it’s not tough. It’s soft on monsters.

Ask a 10-year-old where money comes from, and he might say, “The ATM makes it.” We don’t let kids vote, let them drive, let them drink Coke after midnight. We don’t even let them choose dinner. Ever seen a kid with broccoli? He’ll cry.

Who children are today are not who they’ll be tomorrow. Punishing them is punishing potential, not crime.

The stuntman could fall from a burning building and still land on smarter policies.

If a 10-year-old can commit a crime, then Robin should let him run for office. Make him senator, too. He’d be smarter, he’d be cheaper; he’d show up to work with his homework done.

If, by Robin’s own logic, children are criminally liable at 10, then he has implicitly agreed that these children are full citizens in every meaningful sense, and are ready for all adult responsibilities.

Let’s allow them inside casinos. Let’s send them to war. Either Robin grants them taxes, contracts, marriage, or admits his premise is internally inconsistent and dangerously naive.

If a 10-year-old can be guilty of murder, then he can also be guilty of electing Robin Padilla. Which one’s the bigger crime?