PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Monday pinned the blame on Senator Francis Pangilinan and his authored Juvenile Justice Law over the supposed increment in the number of people who have “criminal minds.”
In a speech delivered during the investiture ceremony of the Boy Scouts of the Philippines, Duterte lamented that young offenders can walk free if they are below 15 years old, “irrespective of the gravity of the event.”
The Chief Executive said “nobody respects the law” since Pangilinan authored the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006, which states that person 15 years old and below cannot be imprisoned for heinous crimes like rape and murder.
“The problem with Pangilinan, he was too in a hurry, he passed that so we produced about five, six generation of people who committed gangs and released on the same day, irrespective of the gravity of the event,” Duterte said.
“So when you reach the age 15, whatever you do – kill a person, rape a woman – whatever the crime, robbery with homicide, robbery with rape with homicide, when your mother arrives, you will be brought back to her. You will only stay [in the correctional facility] for one day,” he added.
Under the Juvenile and Welfare Act, young criminals aged 15 and below are exempted from imprisonment or other punishment, even if the act committed is a heinous crime.
In the case of young offenders between 16 and 18 years old, the Department of Social Welfare and Development is mandated to determine “if the perpetrator acted with discernment.”
During the presidential campaign, Duterte pushed for the amendment of the juvenile offenders’ law, citing that the youth are being used to perform criminal operations.
Duterte said the law should be blamed for the country’s “sordid history.”
“I’m so sad over the sordid history of our country. Pangilinan passed the Juvenile Offenders Act and lowered the age to 15,” he said.
“They can walk free. And now that they are all grown-ups, we now produced people who are of criminal minds,” the President added. (SunStar Philippines)