Nowadays, it is common to hear of minors committing crimes. They snatch bags from pedestrians or pickpocket inside markets and malls. They rob people who are asleep, they sell prohibited drugs, and steal car parts and motorbike accessories in parking lots. These children commit a host of other crimes that are previously-committed only by adults and veteran offenders. Because of what’s happening around us today, many have clamored for the suspension of RA 9344.
Why is this happening? Have our teenagers become so desperate in their lives? Is the economy so low that parents are sending out their children to “make a living”? Have the schools become incompetent that young people have become so unprincipled? And what about the church? Has it become so inadequate in ministering the youth that they have become so indifferent even to what’s going to happen to their souls?
Some of these might be the answer but only to a certain extent. The real answer lies in the exploitation, misreading of, and inefficient/incompetent implementation of RA 9344.
Why exploitation? And who’s exploiting RA 9344? Crime syndicates have become so clever; they have become so “educated” that they now read the rules of the land. They know for a fact that minors cannot be incarcerated based on the provisions of child-related laws. These gangsters know that the worst that could happen to child offenders is to be under the custody of the DSWD. But then of course, they can get out after a couple of days. So, they use minors for akyat bahay activities, snatching, and pickpocketing even in broad daylight.
What about misreading? Nowhere in RA 9344 was it ever written that children in conflict with the law are exempted from any kind of justice.
What the law says is that youth offenders should not be judged, condemned, or incarcerated as adults or hardened criminals.
The law was crafted with the notion that young people should not be doomed to lives of law-breaking by throwing them into the same jail with toughened criminals.
The point is, while minors, generally, will not be held accountable for their actions under the criminal justice system, these children are still accountable for their acts under the Juvenile Justice system.
I would like to quote the 3rd paragraph of RA 9344 which says that “the exemption from criminal liability herein established does not include exemption from civil liability, which shall be enforced in accordance with existing laws.”
So there, it isn’t true that the law (RA 9344) is an obstruction to the proper dispensation of justice.
We hear of the recent demand from legislators to suspend it. Actually, there’s nothing wrong with the law. We’re just so inefficient, and so incompetent in carrying it out. Instead of clamoring for suspension, why don’t they help find the money that will be used so that the “separate justice system” that this specific law is talking about will be realized?
In Dumaguete, we also have young offenders. The City Government boasts of its Youth Home for those children in conflict with the law.
However, these children find a way to get out and go back to the streets where they strongly feel is where they belong.
What do you think is the reason they feel this way? Maybe because the city’s Youth Home is in itself is not conducive for “rehabilitation.” It looks like a prison cell. I’ve been there several times when I was writing my book Batang Tun-og and I just can’t fathom what I saw considering that our city has been named “Child- Friendly City” for several years.
Actually, I have more to say about that place but I will reserve my opinions; suffice it to say, that place, which is supposed to “reorient” Dumaguete’s children in conflict with the law, has not lived up to what it’s supposed to do.
RA 9344 is not the problem. It’s the way we look at the problem of these children, and how law enforcers cower in the face of criminal syndicates.
With the presence of Digong, however, we can hope for a resolution to the issue of Filipino youth offenders.
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Author’s email: legis616821@gmail.com
