EDITORIAL - There must be something wrong

It has happened yet again; last Saturday night minors in conflict with the law escaped from Operation Second Chance, a facility that is supposed to rehabilitate juveniles who often run afoul of the law to give them a better chance at being contributing citizens later in life.

The last time this happened was March 2020 when five minors also escaped the facility in Barangay Kalunasan, Cebu City, and the year before that there were also two incidents.

This time it wasn’t just one or two or three escaping from the facility, it was a mass escape of 20 minors, although seven of them were already found by the following morning.

According to reports, the minors escaped just by rushing the lone guard posted at the gate, catching him off-guard. A house parent who was nearby could also do nothing as the minors made their escape which, according to authorities, had been planned for some time.

There are still a lot of details that have to come to light about the incident, but some people can’t help but speculate that the minors might have felt they could no longer bear to stay in the facility, or felt that conditions were better outside.

If one or two or three escape, then we understand that they may be just three who felt dissatisfied with the conditions there, but if 20 suddenly make up their minds that they no longer wish to stay there then there might something that the facility needs to correct, whether it involves the food, the amenities, the facility’s practices or routines, or whatever.

There must be something wrong there that led such a number to escape.

Like we said, there are still details we don’t know about the incident. And to be fair, we would welcome the side of the facility to explain what led to the incident.

Because minors who grow up on the wrong side of the law won’t have a strong moral compass, they have the tendency to become tomorrow’s criminals; everything must be done to try to keep them on the straight and narrow path.