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Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Task force to look into case of minors inside Cebu City jail
Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña will leave it to the task force on street children to investigate the presence of minors at BBRC instead of referring the matter to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
It will be redundant to refer the matter to NBI, he said, since the Cebu City Task Force on Street Children (CCTFSC) started its own investigation last Monday.
However, he may eventually endorse it to the NBI if he is not satisfied with the investigation of the non-government organizations under the task force.
“Margot and the task force are looking into the matter. It will take a week so when I get back and they’re not satisfied, then we’ll look into it,” the mayor told a news conference yesterday.
The NBI 7 said it will just wait for the mayor’s request.
The Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center (BBRC) is coordinating with the Department of Social Welfare and Development in verifying the records of the reported minors committed at the city jail.
Jail warden Efren Nemenio, in an interview over radio dyLA, said there are three minors, believed to be 16 and 17 years old, separately kept from other inmates while waiting for the verification process to be completed.
It usually takes about two months to complete the verification because they still need to get a copy of the birth certificates of the minors, he said.
In Malacañang, President Arroyo yesterday signed into law a bill aimed at keeping children below 15 years old out of jails.
The Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006, authored by Senate Majority Leader Francis Pangilinan, seeks to reform the present justice system for “children in conflict with the law.”
The law was certified as urgent after the United Nations Children’s Fund late last year said that about 4,000 children, some as young as nine, were being detained in jails, many of them mixed with adults.
Nemenio, meanwhile, explained that the minors initially told the arresting policemen that they were already 18 years old.
CCTFSC co-chairperson and first lady Margot Osmeña said she will not recommend to the mayor any sanction for the parties who will be found responsible for some lapses, “but something will be done.”
Margot was upset after finding out that 17 minors are detained at the BBRC and not at the Operation Second Chance, the city’s jail facility for minor offenders.
“We want each of the 17 cases checked and find out why they are there. There’s obviously a lapse somewhere and something will be done because this shouldn’t be happening,” she told Sun.Star Cebu.
Osmeña already warned earlier that he will run after policemen, Bureau of Jail Management and Penology personnel or anybody caught forcing the minors to say they are 18 years old so they will be committed to BBRC.
For her part, CCTFSC executive director Abeth Cuizon said they may have to reorient law enforcement agencies again, saying some are still not child-sensitive.
While some of the children admitted that they lied about their age to avoid being sent to the Kalunasan jail, others also alleged that their arresting officers forced them to say they were 18 at the time of the arrest.
Under the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006, children caught committing crimes will be turned over to a welfare council to be created under the social welfare ministry.
Those between 15 and 18 years old can only be criminally charged if it is proven that they committed the act with full knowledge that it was a crime. (LCR/JST)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (May 17, 2006 issue)
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