Reaction Paper on

“Lowering the Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility (MACR)”

In every country, law-makers had once tried to define or is still trying to define the
concept “child” or “juvenile”. Here in our country, a child refers to a person under the age of
eighteen (18) years. Our current law under Republic Act 9344 also known as “Juvenile Justice
and Welfare Act of 2006” provides that the Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility is the age
when a child is fifteen (15) years and one day or above but below eighteen years of age, commits
an offense with discernment.
Recent proposition seeking to lower the minimum age of responsibility to help curb
crime and prevent criminals to use the minors in the commission of a crime has created
arguments amongst those who support the proposition and critics who vehemently disagree with
this idea. If I were to be asked as to whether or not I would agree to lower the MACR. I would
say yes, I agree to lower the age of criminal responsibility to twelve (12) years of age provided
he/she acted with discernment. Thus, twelve (12) years old should be the lowest age at which a
child can be prosecuted within the criminal justice system. Children 12 years and below should
be exempt from criminal liability but shall be subject to an intervention program pursuant to the
section 20 provided by R.A 9344.
This is not only about the children being used by the criminal organizations to commit
criminal acts. This is also about the reality that some of the juvenile delinquents have acted on
their own without having involved in drugs, exploited or driven by adults to commit criminal
acts nor because they were compelled to do things that do not conform to the law because of
prevailing circumstances such as lack of food and or they came from a disadvantage families.
Considering the advancement of our society and the children’s exposure to technologies, there is
a huge possibility of a twelve year old child to understand the nature of his/her action and
likewise fully appreciate the consequences of his unlawful acts. That is, despite being capable of
desisting the commission of a crime has chosen not to for self-gratification, most especially those
who are involved with heinous crimes.
However, my expression to concur lowering MACR to twelve years of age is solely for
the purpose of imposition of criminal liability to those juvenile delinquents that has been
adjudicated as such by the court of proper jurisdiction. For the reasons that, I also recognize a
large percentage of youthful offenders are victims of circumstances and that the main purpose of
the amendment of the law should still have to protect the best interest of the children. To deal
them in a family environment whenever possible, and to separate them from their parents only
when necessary for their welfare or in the interest of public safety. That the law must still
provide care, protection and wholesome moral, mental and physical development and removing
from children in conflict with the law the stigmata of criminality and criminal behavior.
Allowing rehabilitation and reintegration of the child in conflict with the laws to the society.
That even though, the minimum age of responsibility will be lower, the government and the
society must endeavor to ensure that incarceration would serve as the last option in dealing
youthful offenders. Thus, this will only serve as deterrence to those who think our law is too
lenient in imposition of punishment.
Furthermore, we have to strike a balance and ensure to strengthen the implementation of certain
provisions under the existing Juvenile Justice and welfare act of 2006 for the programs to be
effective. Since, we are to lower the age of criminal responsibility it is also but proper to improve
facilities like the “Bahay Pag-asa” and provide additional manpower experts in the fields that
will handle child counseling and child psychology to best accommodate their needs for self-
growth and understanding the importance of respect to the fundamental rights and freedom of
others. Thus, the government must endeavor to increase the number of Bahay Pag-asa that are
operational. Since out of the 114 mandated facilities dedicated to house children in conflict with
the law, only 35 are currently operative. The current operational facilities should be also improve
as report shows that the current status of some of the housing facilities for children are not
conducive to learning and or rehabilitation. Also, the government must ensure that the proper
remuneration for justice system personnel is also given to increase professional motivation to
work with children and combat bribery and corruption. This must be addressed promptly to
ensure that the young children involves in crime and are apprehended will not be placed in jails
along with the adult offenders. Where they will be most likely be prone to being abused or
further be influenced with deviant behavior instead being guided and rehabilitated.
That as we lower the age of criminal responsibility we should also allocate budget for the
funding of these facilities to ensure adequate nutrition, clothing and sufficient shelter are
provided while they are on the process of rehabilitation. And that community-continuum or the
aftercare of CICLs’ should be guaranteed to provide continuous guidance and support upon
release from rehabilitation and subsequent reintegration into society. This includes the timely
release, the suitable residence, food, clothing, available employment and sufficient means to
facilitate successful reintegration in society to ensure that they will be ready to as they are being
reintegrated to the society and that the possibility that they will to commit the same act would
also be lessen. Thus, eventually would result to reduce criminality especially among youth.
In addition, the partnership between the community and the law enforcement agencies
should be boosted in trying to prevent and apprehend those criminal organizations and other
individuals that exploit children to commission of crimes, taking advantage their situations and
lack of choice because of some factors they have no control of. Law enforcement agencies
should strengthen their capacity to apprehend and be ever vigilant in prevention criminal
activities that poses dangers to our children and community. And most especially protect
children on the street and in custody from torture and ill-treatment, including rape and sexual
abuse, whether by officials or other detainees.
That the government should provide the Children in Conflict with the Law, a rich
opportunity to attend school while they are on the process of rehabilitation, so that they would be
guided and they would see that there is more that they can do other than engaging in criminal
acts that will eventually destroy their future. This is also in consideration to the fact that some, if
not most, CICLs has only limited opportunities or privileges especially when it comes to
education.
One of the existing government programs that I think better to be incorporated in
providing educational opportunity to the child in conflict with the law should be the TESDA-
Diploma Scholarship Programs. Wherein, the current concentration is to provide assistance to
out of school youth and individuals who were not able to finish their studies because of
incapacity to sustain their educational needs. In this program, three (3) year-diploma courses are
offered to the beneficiaries with free tuitions fee along with school materials and daily
allowance, to also include uniform and personal protective gear allowance and GSIS insurance.
This program is also designed to have more hours concentrating to skills development to equip
the students with knowledge and experience that they can use once they apply for a job. Students
graduated from Alternative-Learning system and those who graduated from the old high school
curriculum are also accepted and were given extra lessons through bridging so they could cope
up with the current curriculum. The students also has the option to add for another year that will
lead them to acquiring a bachelor’s degree since the course are also aligned with the CHED
programs. With this in mind, the lacks of opportunity as one factor that affect causality of crime
might be address though innovation and incorporation of this program or similar to this programs
if there are any other that’s already existing. While it is also that this will entail millions of
budget along with the improvement of Bahay Pag-asa, providing educational opportunity such as
like this will I think would results to long-term solution in our quest to reduce criminality.
Another is that aside from giving them an opportunity to study and eventually have a
brighter future. The government and the community must have to be also proactive in prevention
of crime through resilient support on programs that promotes community involvement and
recreation among youth offenders. Strengthen community-wide awareness on responsibility and
consequences of early pregnancy among youth that sometimes result to dysfunctional families
and other interconnected problems.
Provide consistent medical and counseling assistance to youthful offenders that are
pregnant or low income single mothers from the community, to assist and support them while
they are on process of adjustment and acceptance of responsibility, strengthen their mother-child
relationship to prevent child tendency to run away and be exposed to peers that are delinquents
and stimulate the child propensity to commit crime. This kind of program will also prevent
maternal related behavior problems as they are also guided and given assistance had the mother
suffers post-partum syndrome that is very common but mostly ignored by majority in the society.
Thus, the mother whose under depression or post-partum syndrome would most likely to inflict
physical and or mental abuse to her children.

In conclusion, there are still a lot of areas that we need to improve to not only reduce
crime committed by adults but of also the juvenile delinquents. That there is still a need to amend
some legislations and community practices to allocated the much needed resources to ensure the
apprehension of those who exploits the children. To ensure that arrest and detention are only
used as the last resort in dealing with juvenile delinquents. That if there is a need to separate the
child in conflict with the law they would be place in housing or shelter that is conducive to
rehabilitation with utmost consideration to their best interest. And that they’d be treated with
dignity and respect for them to become prepared should they’d be reintegrated to the community.
Furthermore, diversion programs as an additional procedural mechanism must be allow or
propose at each stage of traditional criminal proceedings, with an emphasis on restorative justice
and child rights-friendly traditional and non-formal justice systems.
 The government should also endeavor to immediately end the practice of lengthy pre-trial
detention to avoid CICL from too much exposure to adult offenders especially that our facilities
are very limited. To establish and enforce stricter time limits for all actors in the justice process
in order to speed up the processing of cases involving children in conflict with the law. Most
importantly the government must also ensure adequate budget allocation to social services,
probation and programs focusing on prevention, diversion and alternatives to detention as well as
improvement of law enforcement agencies like their tools, equipment and other means in
apprehending highly trained and organized criminals. Lastly, all juvenile justice system
personnel (police, social services, probation, lawyers, judiciary, staff in prisons and institutions),
should receive rigorous initial training school and periodic in-service training in human rights,
children's rights, in relations with street children. That the law enforcement agencies especially
those who are handling CICL must have proper training with experts such as child psychologists
to ensure that they understand the needs of the juvenile delinquents and what causes their deviant
behaviors. Ensuring awareness and understanding of the principles of human rights and child
rights (especially the best interests of the child, In that way, they could effectively help in
guiding the children as first responders and help them in proper understanding of the nature of
their actions and its consequences.