Kiko hit for raising criminal liability age

MANILA, Philippines - President Duterte yesterday slammed Sen. Francis Pangilinan for crafting a law raising the age of criminal responsibility from 9 to 15, a piece of legislation that he claimed has produced “people who are of criminal mind.”

Duterte said the amendments to the Juvenile Justice System and Welfare Act introduced by Pangilinan allowed wrongdoers to get away with their misdeeds.

“When you reach 15, whatever you do, you kill, you rape women, whatever the crime, robbery with homicide or robbery with rape and homicide, whatever your crime is, when your mother arrives, they will just give you to her. Just one day,” the President said.

“You will see them in EDSA. They keep coming back. Now they have grown up, we have produced people who are of criminal minds. And that is why it is hard to stop the drug problem now.”

He said the problem with Pangilinan was that he was too much in a hurry.

“He passed that law – that was 15 years ago – we produced about five, six generations of people who committed crimes and were released on the same day, irrespective of the gravity of the offense,” he added.

Under the law, a child below 15 years old at the time of the commission of a crime shall be exempt from criminal liability. The offender, however, will undergo government-designed intervention program.

Critics of the law claimed that drug syndicates are taking advantage of this by using children as couriers. Duterte’s allies are now pushing for a bill that will bring back the age of criminal liability to 9.