House justice committee chair assures no imprisonment for children under approved bill

House Committee on Justice chairperson Oriental Mindoro Representative Salvador Leachon assured on Monday that children will not be imprisoned and branded as criminals under the substitute bill they approved lowering the age of criminal responsibility to nine years old.

During the panel meeting, Leachon said that the bill is not an "anti-poor" and "ruthless" legislation, as claimed by child rights groups that oppose it.

"In fact, as I would say, [this is] a pro-children legislative measure," Leachon said.

"We are not putting children in jail but in reformative institutions to correct their ways and bring back to their communities. They are not branded as criminals but children in conflict with the law," he added.

Leachon pointed out that there is no imprisonment under the measure.

"There is only mandatory confinement if the age of the child who committed the offense would be nine years old and below 15 years old and committed serious offenses," he said.

These offenses include murder, parricide, infanticide, serious illegal detention, carnapping, and violation of the dangerous drugs.

Children who committed these crimes, Leachon added would not be detained in regular detention cells but in the rehabilitation and reformation center Bahay Pag-asa.

Leachon also stressed that the measure primarily aims to run after syndicates who use children in committing crimes.

He said that the maximum penalty for individuals who use children in perpetrating crimes would be reclusion temporal, or 12 or 20 years of imprisonment, if the crime committed by the children is below six years in terms of sentence.

A penalty of reclusion perpetua, or 20 to 40 years of imprisonment, meanwhile will be imposed on individuals who use children in committing crimes if the crime committed by the children is punishable by more than six years of prison sentence.

"If the penalties committed by the children in conflict with the law will be divisible penalties, automatic na two degrees lower ang penalty. But then if the life imprisonment would be punishment, the maximum sentence will only be 12 years imprisonment," Leachon added.

At the same time, children above 18 years who have yet to finish their confinement penalty will not be mixed with ordinary inmates, Lechon said, but instead will be transferred to an agricultural camp or training centers managed by the Bureau of Corrections and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.

"In no case that the maximum service of sentence shall reach the age of 25 years old," he added, meaning children in conflict with the law will be released upon reaching this age.

Leachon said that parents will likewise undergo the similar program intervention on the Bahay Pag-asa.

"If the parents will not perform, they will be incarcerated," he said.

The records of the children who will be covered by the provisions of the bill also be strictly confidential, Leachon added.

All present members of the justice panel except one, Agusan Del Norte Representative Lawrence Fortun, voted to approve the substitute bill.

Leachon is hoping that the measure will be enacted into law before the 17th Congress ends in June this year. —LDF, GMA News