Lesson 1.

2 Learning Activity

Juvenile Criminals: Waiting for the second chance

POVERTY as a person could be languishing in jail in perpetuity: It has been blamed for many
social ills. One such ills is why many children commit crimes.

However, the real challenge, according to advocates and pundits, lies in the failure of the State
to properly deal with the so-called children in conflict with the law (CICL). Such failure, it has
been said, deprives children of the opportunity to better their lives or, at the least, enjoy their
childhood.

Based on data provided by the Juvenile Justice Welfare Council (JJWC), there were at least
11,000 CICL in 2009. The government’s media agency has reported that, prior to the enactment
of the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006, “more than 52,000 Filipino children are in
detention or under custodial setting.”

“They suffer from all kinds of abuses, and some were meted out with capital punishment,” the
Philippine Information Agency (PIA) said in a report on the 10th anniversary of the JJWC in
May.

The prevalence of juvenile delinquency is primarily due to poverty, according to the Philippine
National Police (PNP) considering that theft is the common offense committed by children.

Crimes

ABOUT 60 percent of juvenile crimes fall under crimes against property. These include theft,
robbery, malicious mischief and estafa, statistics by the PNP from 2012 to 2015 revealed. On
the other hand, crimes against persons—which include rape, attempted rape, acts of
lasciviousness, physical injuries, murder, attempted murder, seduction, grave threats, abduction
and homicide—constitute 36 percent of the crimes committed by children covering the same
period.

In addition, 4 percent of the juvenile crimes from 2012 to 2015 involved violations against
special laws, such as Republic Act (RA) 9165 (prohibited drugs), Presidential Decree 1866
(illegal possession of firearms) and Presidential Decree 1602 (illegal gambling).

Last year theft, physical injury and rape were the top 3 crimes committed by children.

Theft cases recorded last year reached 3,715, while physical-injury cases totaled 1,859. Rape
cases involving child perpetrators reached 642.
The total number of theft cases from 2012 to 2015 reached 13,680. Staggering, too, is the total
number of physical-injury cases (6,062), robbery (2,446 cases), rape (1,973 cases reported)
and cases involving prohibited drugs (818). What is shocking is the number of murder cases
involving children: 217.

The latter means there were at least 4.5 murder cases reported every month in the past 48
months ending 2015 that involved children.

What the law says

IN 2006 the Philippines enacted RA 9344, or the JJW Act of 2006, aimed at addressing the
plight of CICL.

Justice Assistant Secretary Aimee T. Neri said the enactment of the said law is the State’s
adherence to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), the UN Standard
Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice, the UN Guidelines for the Prevention
of Juvenile Delinquency and the UN Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of Liberty.

The JJW Act of 2006 was later on amended by RA 10630, which took effect on November 7,
2013.

RA 9344 was amended, according to the JJWC, to further strengthen the Juvenile Justice and
Welfare System and to ensure that the law is effectively and fully implemented.

The amendment focused on requiring local government units to adapt, implement and manage
intervention and support centers called the Bagong Pag-asa.

The amended law also provides for juvenile-delinquency prevention and intervention programs,
as well as diversion programs. The law also seeks to strengthen the rehabilitation, reintegration
and aftercare programs focused on CICL.

RA 10630 also mandates the transfer of the administrative supervision over JJWC from the
Department of Justice to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

The JJW Act, as amended, covers children at risk and CICL.

The law provides that a person under the age of 18 is considered a child.

It also sets the minimum age of criminal responsibility at 15 years, which means that a child of
that age is exempt from criminal liability.
The law also provides that a child that is above 15 years but below 18, who acted without
discernment at the time of the commission of the offense, is also exempt from criminal
responsibility.

However, children exempt from criminal responsibility are not exempt from civil liability.

Bahay Pag-asa

THE minimum age for children who can be committed in youth-care facility, or Bahay Pagasa, is
12 years old.

Bahay Pag-asa is a 24-hour child-caring institution established, funded and managed by local
government units and licensed and/or accredited non-governmental groups. The center
provides short-term residential care for children in conflict with the law who are above 15 but
below 18 years of age who are awaiting court disposition of their cases or transfer to other
agencies or jurisdiction.

The government has allocated the amount of P 400 million for the establishment of Bahay Pag-
asa in provinces and highly urbanized cities.

In a report by the PIA, some 34 Bahay Pag-asa have been constructed nationwide for the
rehabilitation of CICL as of May.

Recently opened in early October was a center by the municipal local government of Cuyapo in
Nueva Ecija. According to the PIA report, this Bahay Pag-asa Rehabilitation Center was built
using the P3-million incentive fund from the Department of the Interior and Local Government.
The one-story rehabilitation center is the first of its kind in Central Luzon, and can house 10 to
20 children in conflict with the law.

Poor implementation of the law

WHEN asked to describe the state of juvenile criminals in the country, Neri cited the recent
study made by the UN International Crime and Justice Research Institute, which revealed that
“poverty caused the majority of child crimes across the Philippines during the mid 1990s.”

Neri, who is a member of the JJWC, said the UN observed in the study that there was poor
implementation of the provisions and supposed protections being pushed for youth offenders
under RA 9344, as amended by RA 10630.

Some of these observations include the lack of compliance by local government units of the
provisions of the law, the continued detention of children pending trial and the need for more
public support.
Some of these observations include the lack of compliance by local government units of the
provisions of the law, the continued detention of children pending trial and the need for more
public support.

Even the JJWC acknowledged some difficulties in addressing the plight of CICL in the country.

Neri said as of 2012, there are only 20 youth detention facilities all over the country.

Even so, as of February 2012, there were 440 children who are detained in adult prisons
because of the lack of institutions that would provide and implement the intervention programs
for them.

Molave center

NOT all cities or municipalities have their own special facility for youth offenders.

Quezon City, which is one of the most progressive cities in the Philippines, has its Molave Youth
Home for youth offenders. The facility is located at the Social Services Development
Department (SSDD) building behind the City Hall.

Molave provides temporary custody and care to youth offenders between 9 and 17 while
undergoing trial.

A 2005 Gawad Galing Pook awards for pioneering work in the rehabilitation of youth offenders,
as well as their reintegration to society, Molave is being run and managed by the city’s SSDD.

At Molave, youth offenders get the chance to make the most of their life while waiting for the
judge’s verdict.

Failure of the law

IN the Philippines it is not the first time that a teenager has committed heinous crimes.

Youth offenders are getting younger and bolder. From petty street crimes, they are now figuring
in heinous crimes that would send them to jail for life, or worse, join the death row; the
implementation of which is now also being considered by some lawmakers to deter the
commission of drug-related heinous crimes.

But children at risk or children in conflict with the law are more vulnerable to human-rights
abuse. Hence, they need effective intervention to correct their behavior.

The law, however, seemed to fail in curbing the number of children getting involved in crimes.
Worse, those involved in petty and even serious crimes are getting younger and younger, some
committing crimes like robbery-holdup, murder, illegal drug use and peddling, prompting some
lawmaker to think about lowering the age of criminal responsibility.

The proposal triggered howls of protest from child-welfare group Akap Bata and humanrights
watchdog Karapatan, apparently as they see no need for such amendment in the current
juvenile justice law.

Instead, they said there is a need to enhance measures that would address juvenile
delinquency without subjecting youth offenders to consequences of incarceration.

Human-rights abuse

THE leftist group Karapatan said children in conflict with the law are prone to human-rights
abuse.

In fact, even before a court of law finds them guilty of a crime, they already end up in juvenile
facilities or, worse, detention where they suffer psychological and emotional trauma, like adult
criminal offenders do while in detention.

Karapatan Secretary-General Cristina Palabay said the country’s juvenile justice system is weak
and remain wanting.

She underscored the need for more child-friendly facility for rehabilitation of youth offenders in
preparation for social reintegration.

Illegal arrest and detention of children in conflict with the law are also happening, Palabay said,
citing a case documented by Karapatan in 2014.

The police, she said, arrested and detained for more than two weeks three to five minors during
a demolition of illegal settlers in Barangay San Roque, Quezon City, that turned violent.

The minors, she said, were arrested during the chaos that ensued as a result of the violent
demolition and dispersal of protesting residents who defended their homes against the
demolition crew.

The process of releasing the children to their legitimate guardians, their parents, took more than
two weeks, according to Palabay.

Palabay claims that volunteer workers of Karapatan had had a difficult time coordinating with
the police and DSWD to facilitate the release of the minors.

“We have seen their conditions in the facility for juveniles in Quezon City, and it is no different
from ordinary detention for adult criminal offenders,” she said.
According to her, it surprised them that it took the police that long to turn the “suspects” over to
the custody of the DSWD

Weak justice system

ONE weakness of the existing law to protect children in conflict with the law is the rehabilitative
and reformative aspects, which remain wanting, Palabay said.

“Not all rehabilitative and reformative aspect of the juvenile justice law are implemented,” she
said, citing that those in the custody of the DSWD do not get adequate therapy and
psychosocial support.

DSWD facilities for children in conflict with the law, she added, need to be established while
existing ones need improvement.

Children in conflict with the law, she said, often end up behind bars like common criminals even
inside facilities run by the DSWD or LGUs.

Under the watch of Social Welfare Secretary Judy Taguiwalo, Karapatan is confident that CICL
would soon received enhanced protection by the agency, with social workers following her
marching orders.

Even minors arrested for petty crimes, she said, should be protected against the consequence
of incarceration, including the social stigma of being, once in their life, put behind bars alongside
adult criminals, as mandated by law.

“The ultimate problem, especially CICL, is poverty,” Palabay told the BusinessMirror. “If they
belong to poor families, they would resort to antisocial activities, turn to drugs or commit petty
crimes, because they are not in school where they belong.

Recommendations

WHILE saying the juvenile justice system is weak, Karapatan is not jumping the gun in
recommending a review of the existing juvenile justice law.

“Lowering the age of criminal liability is very controversial as some quarters are pushing,” she
said. “We believe it would only subject children in conflict with the law to criminal liability.”

However, Palabay said Karapatan saw the need to revisit and revise the law’s implementing
rules and regulation, and ensure that the law is implemented according to its intents and
purposes.

The DSWD and LGUs, she added, should work together to ensure that the law is protecting
children in conflict with the law, through measures that would give them a second chance.
Karapatan, she said, would be closely coordinating with the DSWD to make things better.

Integration programs lacking

EARLY this year, former Interior Secretary Mel Senen Sarmiento issued a call to LGUs to
develop their juvenile integration programs.

The call was made just as the JJWC released the guidelines for LGUs on how to develop a
Comprehensive Local Juvenile Intervention Program (CLJIP).

It was only during that time that the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG)
began to build the National Juvenile Justice Information Management System to ensure proper
recording and management of all data related to children at risk and CICL.

A member of the JJWC, the DILG is part of the Technical Working Group that formulated the
guidelines.

Under Section 18 of Republic Act 9344, as amended by RA 10630, LGUs are mandated from
the level of villages (barangay) up to the provincial level to institute the CLJIP.

The guidelines include budget allocation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the
CLJIP. The document contains an order to come up with an effective three- to five-year CLJIP.

Vow to continue

AS a member-agency of the JJWC, the DILG commits to harmonizing efforts for juvenile justice
and welfare, and has been advocating for Child-Sensitive and Child-Friendly Society through a
mandatory audit system called the Child-Friendly Local Governance Audit.

From this year forward, the JJWC is moving toward a more efficient, effective and better
implementation of the law by continuing the strong coordination with all the duty-bearers and
capacitating them to properly perform their roles, the former DILG chief said.