Duterte hands off in issue of age of criminal liability —Palace

President Rodrigo Duterte will not interfere in Congress' work in connection with proposals that aim to lower the age of criminal responsibility to as low as nine years old, Malacañang said Tuesday.

Duterte has yet to specify what he considers as the age of criminal responsibility as administration allies in the House of Representatives passed at the committee level on Monday the substitute bill seeking to lower the age of criminal responsibility from 15 years old to nine.

A counterpart measure in the Senate seeks to lower the age of criminal responsibility to 13 years old with its author, Senate President Vicente Sotto III, arguing that nine-year-olds are too young to be held responsible for a crime.

"All he [Duterte] has been saying since the campaign is he wants that lowered. And we will leave that to the lawmakers," presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said at a news conference.

"The President will not interfere because that's the lawmakers' job. We will not question that."

Panelo sidestepped the question on whether the President will certify the measure as urgent given the tight congressional calendar ahead of the May 2019 polls, saying the Palace will just wait for the final version of the bill.

The bills pending in Congress have been met with resistance from the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and child rights advocates.

Lotta Sylwander, United Nations Children's Fund representative to the Philippines, on Friday said there is lack of evidence and data that children are responsible for the increase in crime rates committed in the country.

Save the Children, meanwhile, said such move will only push children to "further discrimination, abuse and eventually, into more anti-social behavior."

The CHR urged the government to address conditions that push a child to commit crimes, "rather than placing the burden on a child for the failures of institutions meant to protect them."

"Contrary to the misconception, these children with criminal liability will not be imprisoned. They will be rehabilitated. I think the bill is more directed against the criminals as well as the parents who allow their children to be used by criminal syndicates," Panelo said. —NB, GMA News