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PHILIPPINES: ALTERNATIVE VIEW
Problems juvenile justice law failed to anticipate
Imagine the following: A criminal gang recruits
youngsters 15 years old and younger to its fold. The children are
instructed in the trade secrets of the underworld. Armed with criminal
skills, they are fielded by their syndicate masters to engage in
mugging, porch-climbing, armed robbery, murder and other offenses. When
the youthful perpetrators are caught, the police have no option but to
turn the kids over to social workers who, after documenting the cases,
are obliged to release them. Under the recently enacted Republic Act
9344—also known as the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006—minors
aged 15 and younger have no criminal liability.
That scenario is, of course, a hypothetical one;
however, it is not entirely implausible. R.A. 9344, which its proponents
hope would guarantee children’s rights, may have in fact exposed minors
to further exploitation by criminals—thanks to certain provisions of the
law. For years many well-meaning groups and individuals have advocated
the passage of a juvenile justice bill. Helping boost their campaign
were numerous media reports of youngsters confined in jails along with
adult crime suspects. According to social workers and advocates of
children’s rights, the experience exposed the youths to abuse by both
their jailers and older detainees. In far too many cases too it turned
the kids into hardened criminals.
President Arroyo affixed her signature to R.A. 9344 on
April 28. Fifteen days later the entire text of the law was published in
newspapers, thus completing the process of its enactment. It was a
moment of triumph and vindication for many professional social
workers—meaning those who are certified as such and duly licensed by the
Professional Regulation Commission—and nongovernmental children’s
advocates. An immediate effect of R.A. 9344 was the retroactive
dismissal of criminal cases filed against thousands of children aged 15
and younger throughout the country. As this was being written, no exact
figures were immediately available although the commonly accepted range
was from 1,500 to 4,000 “youth offenders.” Some of them were confined in
facilities specially designed for minors, such as Quezon City’s Molave
Youth Hall, jointly operated by the city’s Social Services and
Development Department (SSDD) and the Bureau of Jail Management and
Penology. However, the vast majority of youngsters who ran afoul of the
law were detained in city and municipal jails—along with adult inmates.
R.A. 9344 provides that children 15 years and below are exempt from
criminal liability. Criminal charges can be filed against those older—up
to 18—but only if they are found to have committed the offense “with
discernment,” that is, they were aware that what they were doing was
wrong.
The law requires police and other law enforcers to
immediately turn over to social workers children caught committing
criminal acts. And the lawmen—relieved of the onus of jailing
minors—have been only too eager to comply with the requirements of R.A.
9344. The problem was that government social workers have found
themselves swamped with problems that the law’s authors obviously did
not anticipate. And by social workers I mean those employed by the
various cities and municipalities; they are independent of the
Department of Social Welfare and Development. As a result of the
government’s policy of devolution in the late 1990s, the DSWD no longer
has a significant local presence.
Strangely, the authors of R.A. 9344 consulted DSWD
officials extensively but hardly touched base with city and municipal
social workers—who are now expected to implement the new law’s
provisions whether or not they are ready to do so. Last week, for
instance, police began turning over to the QC Molave Youth Hall dozens
of minors—including those apprehended outside Quezon City. The number of
minors police have been bringing to the city’s SSDD is growing at such a
rate that QC social workers fear they will soon have little time left
for their other programs, including hundreds of day-care centers. But
the strain on local resources is just an aspect—albeit an important
one—of the complications brought on by R.A. 9344. Last week, for
instance, police turned over to the QC SSDD a 15-year-old boy accused of
raping a 14-year-old girl. Under the new law, the boy cannot be held
criminally liable even if he were to own up to the charge. “Nonetheless,
a crime has been committed,” said one of the QC social workers. “A
14-year-old girl was victimized. What do the authors of R.A. 9344 expect
us to do? Tell the girl nothing really happened to her?” The parents of
the 14-year-old complainant are at a loss too. To whom, they ask, should
they go now to get justice for their daughter?
As youth offenders flooded Molave Youth Hall, QC
social workers tried to get advice from one of R.A. 9344’s authors, Sen.
Francisco Pangilinan. When they called up his office, a member of
Pangilinan’s staff reportedly said that the senator was “unavailable.”
Instead, the QC social workers were told to refer their questions to the
DSWD. One of the questions the QC social workers wanted to ask the
senator was: What if criminal syndicates begin employing minors—who
cannot be charged, thanks to R.A. 9344—to commit armed robbery, murder
and other crimes? For instance, even before R.A. 9344 was enacted, many
of the reported cases of cellular phone snatching were perpetrated by
teenage muggers. In some instances, the mugging victims were knifed or
shot to death. It should not be too hard to imagine how youths who
cannot now be held criminally liable could be further emboldened to
commit such crimes. Pangilinan unfortunately could not be reached for
comment, much less guidance.
Dan Mariano
5 June 2006
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2006/june/05/yehey/opinion/20060605opi2.html
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