REP. Leila De Lima (PL, Mamamayang Liberal) yesterday assailed Sen. Robin Padilla’s bill seeking to lower the age of criminal responsibility to 10 years old, saying it is not justice but an “abdication.”
“This bill does not address crime. It punishes trauma. It does not protect society. It betrays children we have already failed,” De Lima said, calling Padilla’s proposal “a failure of imagination, of compassion, and government.”
De Lima, a former chair of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), said children are not criminals and delinquent ones need guidance, care and hope instead of being jailed.
“We do not fix a broken justice system by putting its weight on the smallest, weakest shoulders. We fix it by asking hard questions: “Why are there children caught up in crimes? Who really benefits from these crimes? Where did we fail as a society?” she said.
Padilla’s bill seeks to amend Republic Act (RA) No. 9344 or the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006 by removing criminal liability exemptions for child offenders aged between 10 to 17 who commit heinous crimes.
The present law sets the minimum age of criminal responsibility at 15 years old.
“Senator Padilla’s proposal is not new. It is a recycled idea that refuses to die, no matter how many times child rights advocates, neuroscientists, developmental psychologists, social workers, and human rights defenders have refuted it with facts and compassion,” De Lima said.
“Let us stop treating children as threats. They are mirrors. If we don’t like what we see, it is not the mirror we must shatter. It is the reflection of our failures,” she added.
De Lima defended RA 9344, saying the law is “clear, progressive, and rooted in restorative justice. What we lack is not legislation, but thoughtful implementation,” she said.
“How many of our LGUs have a functioning Bahay Pag-asa? How many of them have enough social workers, psychologists, or trained personnel to offer real intervention and reintegration?” she said.
“Let us not pretend that incarceration is the only language the State knows how to speak. As a former secretary of justice, I have seen what jails do to children and I have seen what care, education, and structured rehabilitation can achieve. The difference is life-changing. Sometimes, life-saving,” De Lima said.
“If our solution for children who have committed mistakes is jail, the child should not be the one to be blamed but the apathetic system,” she said.
De Lima appealed to both congressmen and senators not to support Padilla’s bill. “This is not a question of being ‘soft or tough’ on crime. This is a question of who we are as a people. Are we the kind of nation that throws away a child before we even try to understand their pain?” she said.
“To be truly just is to know the difference between punishment and cruelty. And to those who say that children today are ‘more exposed,’ I say: exposure is not consent. Exposure is not maturity. Exposure is not accountability. If children today are more exposed to violence, drugs and abuse, the more they should be protected instead of being incarcerated,” she said.
