Transcription

Committee Hearing on SubCommittee of Correctional Reforms

Present:
Deputy Speaker Castro
Hon. Acob, 2nd district of Antipolo
Hon. Salo, Chair TWG
Hon. Atienza, Jr., Partylist Buhay
Deputy Speaker Garcia
Hon. Cagas, Davao Del Sur
Hon. Franz Castro, Partylist Act Teacher
______________________________________________________________________________

Main objectives of the bill

1. to prevent criminals from using children who are below CR in their nefarious acts and to inculcate
in the minds of the children that they are responsible for their actions.

Primary objections
1. Opposed because mere label of being criminals will condemn them and leave a stigma for the
rest of their lives, once branded as criminals, it will be almost impossible to redeem themselves
2. Children are primarily victims and they should be assisted than criminalized.
3. 9 years old are just Grade 3, 12 years Grade 6 and therefore they should need utmost guidance
and protection from the State consistent with the principle of parens patria

In order to expedite and to come up with the best action, com created a Technical Working Group
______________

Hon. Salo

TWG identified main objectives and concern of stakeholders (see above)

Considering that children do not yet have the full capacity and do not understand the extent and
consequences of their actions, it seems harsh and unjust to judge them according to the standards
of adults.

considering that the scenarios of the proponents of the bill children are victims and as such, they
need to guided, instead of being criminalized n consistence with patris patrea.

The TWG agreed that the MACR would not be lowered.

However, CICL aged below 15 years would not be immediately released as currently allowed by the
law. They would immediately be subjected to the current intervention programs of the government
in order to immediately begin rehabilitation and reintegration to society.

Proposed amendments are contained in sec. 2 of the substitute bill

Operation of Bahay Pag-Asa shall now be under the DSWD as opposed to LGUs.
Despite the mandate given to LGUs, very few LGUs have established their Bahay Pag-Asa due to
various reasons. The TWG is convinced that it is more appropriate for DSWD. (Sec. 1, 9 of the
proposed substitute bill)

In order to further discourage, if not totally eliminate the use of children by adults in their commission
of crimes, Sec. 3 increases the penalty of exploitation of children for the commission of the crimes.
TWG proposed a tiered penalty in accordance to the crime a child is forced to commit.
Further, to remind parents of their primary obligation of rearing responsible children, Sec.4 mandates
that parents of CICL to undergo mandatory counseling and intervention and penalizes parents who
should fail to undergo the same, it also carries the liability of parents for damages, primary for civil
damages arising out of the actions of the CICL.

Further, in order to underscore the reduced capacity of children as decision makers, Sec. 5 of the
proposed bill adds a new section for the reduced sentence of CICL convicted by the courts. For
crimes punished by the RPC, the penalty shall be 2 degrees lower. While for special laws with fixed
period of imprisonment, the period shall be halved. Life imprisonment shall be lowered to
impirsonment of up to 12 years. In order to maximize the rehabilitative and integrative programs of
the government to ensure that the CICL become productive citizens, Sec. 6 increases the maximum
age for the extended suspension of sentences from 21 to 25 years. In order to reward CICL for good
behavior, Sec. 7 deducts the time served by the CICL under diversion, rehabilitation, intervention or
detention from the period of sentence in accordance with Art. 97 of the RPC. On the other hand Sec.
8 underscore the penalty for the violation of the confidentiality of records of the CICL. Sec. 10
mandates the confinement of the CICL convicted by the court to culture camps or training camps
established also by the DSWD in coordination with relevant agencies with the government. DSWD
is mandated to establish at least 2 agricultural camps and training facilities each in Luzon, Visayas
and Mindanao which shall have separate facilities for male and female children. —- > this transfer is
not yet contained in the proposed substitute bill submitted to the honorable members. Sec. 11 adds
the accredited foster parents the list of persons to whom a CICL may be released after availing of
community based rehabilitation. And finally, consistent with what has been contained in the proposed
sub bill, the title shall now be read as “An Act Expanding the Scope of Juvenile Justice and Welfare
System and strengthening the social and reintegration programs for Children in Conflict of the Law”
ammending for the purpose RA 9344 JJWA.

______________________________________________________________________________

Hon. Atienza

Q: what exactly is the substitute bill going to do

A: peg at 15 ACR and 9-14 —- age of social responsibility

Q: what kind of penalty should be imposed on adults

A: Sec. 3, will be penalized heavily

Q: Responsibility of parents, how does the TWG answer the question on the responsibility of the
parents?
A: Sec. 4

“Wala na pong mas may hihigit pa na kakayanan na magcontrol ng bata kundi ang mga magulang”
“They should be made the most liable and not just counselling to remind them that they should not
allow the children to go the wrong way. It is the family which must be made most responsible.”

Hon. Castro

We should not pinpoint sole responsibility on parents!

Responsibility here is contributory among all stakeholders! Parents! Government! Different
governmental dept. like DepEd, Church. We should not attribute it solely to the parents! (interpolation
from Atienza: basically, I agree with you!)

Hon. Garbin Jr.: Because of adult syndicates, children are used and so more penalties must be given
on the adults. And we also have international agreements for the rights of the child.
Establishment of the Bahay PagAsa?
Under Sec. 1 and Sec. 9, will now be transferred fully to the DSWD, no longer with the local govt.
because of the factual observation that there has only been 50% of the LGs who have established
Bahay Pag-asa. There will be corresponding appropriations.

______________________________________________________________________________

Pia Cayetano

Cayetano: I would just like to put on record a few things. First of all the bill we have today is a
collaborative work between the members of congress and I’m honored to be a part of this. We really
worked together to reconcile the various concerns and conflicting views of different parties. But we
feel strongly that this is a measure that addresses all the concerns. There is no perfect bill but we
do believe it addresses the major concerns. Number one is the reality that we have thousands of
children being taken advantage of and being introduced into a life of criminality at a very young age.
If you ask the people on the ground, the barangay captains, they all know that the law as it stands
has not been able to address this concern. These children are on extreme blatantly wave their birth
certificate at law enforcers to show they cannot be apprehended and on the other extreme we have
law enforcers who are also very hands-on who do their best within the confines of the law to keep
this child with them for the day, make sermon, lecture, but at the end of the day have to release
these children. So bearing these things into account and knowing that we are not doing our children
justice by allowing this situation to continue, what we decided to put together was a bill that will now
recognize that these children must take responsibility for their actions. So as young as 9 or 10 years
old, the intention of the bill is to tell the parents, the children, the entire community that no you must
be responsible for it because for some reason the law has been taken advantage of and has been
given the impression that it’s ok for the children to commit these petty crimes because they’re young
it’s acceptable, they don’t know what they’re doing but that is not the intention but that is how our
current situation is. So this bill emphasizes that no, you are responsible and there are consequences
for your action even if you are 9 years old or 10 years old. The state will take responsibility and
discipline you if your parents cannot do that and so as outlined by the Chair of our technical working
group, there are now details within this bill that will allow the state to take over parental responsibility
in that sense by putting them in the correct intervention programs that will work for each child. Again,
we recognize parental responsibility because the law here first makes the determination if the parent
is capable of taking care of this child, so hindi yan agad-agad tinatanggal sa parents but if it is clear,
and for those of us whose job requires that we know what’s going on in our barangays, a lot of
barangay captains, a lot of law enforcers will tell us that there are parents na pabayang-pabaya
talaga sa mga anak nila. There are parents who will actually tell the police and the barangay captains,
“please kunin niyo na anak kong ganyan.” Meron talagang ganoon. For the advocates here who
have put on record that the child should always be put with the parents, unfortunately meron ding
people who either cannot take on the responsibility or have chosen not to be responsible parents,
so that’s what this is. If the parents cannot do their job then the state comes in and takes over their
job. But what we have tried to do is to remove that stigma of being a criminal, but all the intervention
programs are there and even strengthened further. So I do believe that we were able to find a
balance here and if there are any areas that we have not addressed I know the committee is very
welcome to look into that.
Just to respond to Hon. Atienza’s concern, what we initially thought of doing here is to give the
parents the chance to be reformed by attending the seminars also because I know a lot of us know
of very good parents who despite their very good intentions may have a child who was lured into a
world of drugs, so the first intention also is to give the parent the opportunity to attend the seminar
and the training program, and refusal to do so would be subjecting them to the criminal sanctions
also.