‘Proposed age of criminal responsibility higher than US, Singapore’

MANILA, Philippines – Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez believes it is “better” to lower the age of criminal responsibility from 15 to nine as it is still higher compared to those in Singapore and the United States.

“It would be best to return this to the original provision of nine years old under our Revised Penal Code. And this is better because it is still higher than those set in the US and Singapore, which is seven (years old),” Alvarez said in an interview over dzMM yesterday.

President Duterte has promised to intensify the crackdown on drugs and substantially reduce criminality in the country. Earlier, he asked Congress to lower the age of criminal responsibility, following reports that criminal gangs are using children to peddle illegal drugs.

“The common complaints received from law enforcers when we traveled all over the country during the campaign was that they cannot arrest these minors who are in conflict with the law. Worse, these minors even bring with them their birth certificates,” Alvarez explained.

Quezon City Rep. Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said Sen. Francis Pangilinan raised the age of criminal responsibility to 15 when the amendments to the Juvenile Justice System and Welfare Act were being tackled in 2013.

This time, Alvarez filed a bill aimed at amending the “Pangilinan Law” to bring back the age of criminal responsibility to nine.