Lowering age of criminal liability a response to the 'call of the times' —Sotto

Lowering the age of criminal liability is a response to the "call of the times," Senate President Tito Sotto said Monday, even as he stressed that minors who will be caught committing crime will not be sent to jail but rehabilitated.

Sotto's bill, Senate Bill 2026, seeks to lower the age of criminal liability from the current 15 years to 13. A counterpart measure at the House of Representatives seeks to lower the age of criminal liability to nine.

"Nakikita niyo naman yung mga nangyayari sa kapaligiran mula noong itinaas na maging 17 years old and below 'yan noong 13th or 14th Congress, lumala eh," Sotto said in an interview on Unang Balita.

"At ang nangyari lalo na 'yung mga sindikato ng droga at criminal syndicates, ginagamit 'yung mga kabataan."

Under Sotto's bill, young offenders will not be sent to jail but to rehabilitation facilities he calls "Bahay Pagasa."

"Hindi ko sinasabi na ikulong, ang sinasabi ko palakasin ang mga Bahay Pagasa," he said, adding under his proposed measure, all provinces and highly urbanized cities are mandated to have such facility.

He said what is important is that these young offenders will be "off the streets" so that they will not be used by criminal syndicates anymore.

"Hindi natin ikukulong sa jail, doon sa mga Bahay Pagasa na pagdadalhan sa kanila. Pero alisin mo sa kalsada para hindi pwedeng gamitin ng mga sindikato," Sotto said.

Sotto said he will insist on his preferred age of criminal liability even as Senator Richard Gordon, who chairs the Senate Committee on Justice, agrees with the House version that it should be 9 years. —KBK, GMA News