Hontiveros backs review of Juvenile Justice Act, keeping minimum age of liability at 15

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Risa Hontiveros said "one of the most important starting points" now to prevent more juvenile offenders is to fix the government's intervention programs for them, instead of further lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility. 

Speaking at the Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum, Hontiveros said while she does not agree with lowering the ceiling for criminal liability, she is open to revisiting the 2006 Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act to ensure children in conflict with the law are fully rehabilitated.

Under Republic Act 9344 and its amendments, a child 15 or younger who commits an offense is exempt from criminal liability but placed under intervention programs instead of prosecution.  

For serious crimes (such as murder, homicide, or rape) or if the child is a repeat offender, the law mandates placement in a Bahay Pag-asa.  

Facilities like the Bahay Pag-asa are required by law to provide rehabilitation and residential care to minors strictly separated from adult detention spaces, to prevent a relapse into criminal behavior. 

"I'm against lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility," the senator said in mixed English and Filipino. "But I agree that we should review and evaluate it and, if needed, amend it to strengthen the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act."

The intervention programs should cover even the gravest cases, she added, including minors who kill or hurt other children, "like in Tacloban." 

Hontiveros clarified she has no position on raising the minimum age and recalled that child-welfare advocates' earlier consensus was to keep the floor at age 15. 

If any bill on the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act reaches the Senate justice committee, Hontiveros said she would join the hearings to hear the latest research. "I'll participate actively so I can learn what the state of the art is in the science and in the right advocacy," she said. 

"For me, more than the age itself, one of the most important starting points is the intervention and diversion programs for children who run into problems or violate the law," Hontiveros added.

At yesterday's hearing on the June 22 school shooting in Tacloban — the first Senate inquiry into the shooting, which Hontiveros chaired — the senator raised the possibility of increasing funding for Bahay Pag-asa, the residential centers meant to rehabilitate children in conflict with the law.

The June 22 attack at San Jose National High School that led to the deaths of three students has reopened debate over whether the current law is too soft on juvenile offenders. 

During the Wednesday hearing itself, parents of two slain students from the Tacloban shooting urged the senators to review the age of criminal responsibility and asked that the suspects be jailed rather than only rehabilitated.

Hontiveros responded to them yesterday by assuring them that the committee was listening to their concerns and would study the issue.

On Thursday, Hontiveros said the first hearing exposed gaps in the law that stop government agencies from moving fast enough against groomers or "malign actors" who target children online. 

Senators who attended the inquiry yesterday, she added, had already begun discussing how to fill those gaps, "either by amending existing laws or passing new ones."

Any proposed fix, Hontiveros said, would have to reach across the whole chain, she said, from gaming companies and social media platforms to internet providers, financial intermediaries, schools and parents.

"Those online spaces, again, I would like to stress, they were originally safe spaces. They're games — it's right there in the name. So we should be playing there, enjoying ourselves, and making friends," Hontiveros said. 

"These should remain safe spaces, and deny access to malicious actors who spread things like [nihilistic violent extremism]," the senator added.