Reformation for youth offenders

Sen. Richard Gordon (Alfonso Padilla photo)

There will be no jail stay for children in conflict with the law.

But Senate President Vicente Sotto III and Sen. Richard Gordon want full reformation of erring children as they push to lower the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 15 to 12 years old.

“No child will be jailed. That is the law we’re pushing for,” said Gordon, chairman of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights.

Gordon is the principal sponsor of Senate Bill 2198 contained in Committee Report 622.

Sotto, meanwhile, lashed out at those opposing the proposed law without properly studying its content.

He scored the parties which resorted to misinformation, discrediting the lawmakers who push for the lowering of the minimum age of criminal responsibility.

“There has been a lot of misinformation designed to mislead the public in order to tend toward the retention of the present 15 years of age and prevent the adoption of the 12 years old threshold as the minimum age of criminal responsibility,” Sotto said.

“Those who support the amendment are being destroyed,” he added in a co-sponsorship speech Monday.

a youth offender in a rehab center. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Barangay truant officers

Both Gordon and Sotto maintained that the proposed amendments of Republic Act 9344 or the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006 are intended as a government intervention to help troubled children reform.

Gordon also laid out some changes in the bill, including assigning truant officers to every 100 barangay residents to ensure children go to school.

It will also have additional guidance counselors and require children younger than 12 years old to go through community-based counseling.

“The government has the responsibility to safeguard children’s welfare,” Gordon stressed.

“The essence of nation is to prepare the youth for the future. Children should be part of nation-building, but they should also have accountability. One crime done by a young person is one too many,” he added.

Sotto said: “We need to snatch our young with force from the snare of the criminal syndicates. We need to seize them from entrapment in the dens of felony and transgression. We need to grab them from the arms of lawlessness and delinquency.”

“Only if we are able to reclaim, seize and grab them now from the paws of gangs and syndicates can we ever hope to rehabilitate our young offenders and prevent them from falling into the abyss of crime,” he added.

Meanwhile, Gordon also suggested community service instead of jail terms for minor offenses.

Gordon said the move is timely considering the current jail congestion rate of the Philippines at 436 percent – the world’s second highest and most overcrowded prison in the world, next to Haiti.

Haiti’s prison system is overcrowded by 454.4 percent, the senator said.

The top five most congested prisons in the country are Region 4A (975 percent), Region 3 (802 percent), Region 9 (789 percent), Region 7 (775 percent) and Region 1 (674 percent).

“The community service envisioned in the measure consists of any action or physical activity which inculcates civic consciousness intended toward the improvement of public work or promotion of public service,” Gordon said.

Senate Bill 2195 or “Community Service Act” seeks to decongest jails and promote restorative justice by authorizing the court to require community service in lieu of jail sentence for offenses punishable with arresto menor and arresto mayor.

Under the Revised Penal Code, the jail term of arresto mayor is one month and one day to six months, while arresto menor is one day to 30 days.

“This will give them a chance to change, rehabilitate and reintegrate themselves into the community,” Gordon said.