Just don’t

Cong Corrales . 

I FEAR the protests against the lowering of the minimum age of criminal responsibility, even if these have snowballed across the country, will fall on deaf ears in the Senate.

As we have seen at the House of Representatives last month, the Senate will mostly likely railroad the passage of this bill, too. Remember that Congress has only two session days left before they take a break to hoodwink the citizens in the mid-term elections this May.

Time is literally running out. The Lower House passed the bill on Jan. 28. Senate is set to pass a similar bill this Feb. 9.

Under Senate Bill 8858, 12-year-old children could be tried for criminal offenses in family courts. Those younger than 18 years old who would be convicted of heinous crimes would be jailed at juvenile reformatory centers.

As of this writing, children’s rights advocates plan to have a picket in front of the Senate building in Pasay City, wearing black and toting placards, to register their indignation against the bill. It may not look like it but I hope the picket would jar the senators back to reason and sobriety.

Protests against the Lower House, which has set the lowering of the minimum age of criminal responsibility to as young as nine years old, have in some ways pressured the senators now to come up with bringing up the age to 12 years old.

Former Supreme Court spokesman Theodore Te has bared it bluntly on his tweet last month by saying that Congress may have conned the people in a ruse.

“Other than an attempt to save face, calling it ‘social’ instead of ‘criminal’ doesn’t solve the problem; neither does ‘raising’ it from 9 to 12 (because it is actually a lowering from 15 to 12),” Te tweeted on Jan. 24.

The Juvenile Justice Welfare Act has set the minimum age of criminal responsibility at 15 years old. Like what my father used to say, if it ain’t broken, why fix it?

My former editor-in-chief and now Philippine researcher for Human Rights Watch, Carlos Conde, warned that should Congress go through with lowering the age of criminal responsibility, it would be subjecting our children to more actual harm than good.

“Legislators should drop the proposed law and refocus their energies on reforming existing government facilities for children or replacing them with better options,” said Conde.

Surely, it has become crystal clear to Filipinos that this brouhaha on lowering the age of criminal liability in Congress stems from Digong Dada’s bloody war on drugs.

The rationale behind the bill being that it would stop criminal syndicates from using children to commit criminal acts is illogical. The overiding reason on both houses being that Digong Dada asked for it is simply psychotic.

Te hit the nail on the head when he tweeted: “It isn’t complicated. Don’t lower the MACR (minimum age of criminal responsibility) just because one man asked for it; or as a crime-fighting measure; or because it was a campaign promise. Not 9, Not 12. Don’t lower the MACR. Just don’t.”

Pushing for this bill in spite of the growing opposition would be best manifested this coming May, specifically for those who seek reelection.

I join Te in calling our supposed legislators not to lower the minimum age of criminal liability. Just don’t.