Juvenile Delinquency in the Philippines

The forum was held last December 11, 2012 at Lawaan Building L2, it is entitled Boy Rehas: Juvenile Delinquency in the Philippines the forum starts at 1:20 in the afternoon and ended at 4:30 in the afternoon it lasted for almost 3 hours. The first speaker which was the sister of one of my classmate Atty. Lorraine Ampongan-Marcaida discussed about the law that is establishing a comprehensive juvenile justice and welfare system in the Philippines according to her the main focus of the law is to protect juveniles in a number of ways during law enforcement contacts and in foster care. By the RA it seeks to decreases the incarceration of minors. According to the Atty. Lorraine the legal definition of Juvenile Delinquent is a person between the ages of 7 and 16 years of age who commits an act which would be a crime if that person was adult. She also defines to us the term Juvenile Offender it is a person of age 13, 14 or 15 who commits more serious or violent acts, and may be prosecuted as an adult. She explained to us that Juvenile offenders are most likely subject to a more serious penalty than a juvenile delinquent. According to her it is the Supreme Court that tries and hears all cases that is been committed by a Juvenile but it may be sometimes transferred to a Family Court. According to the Short movie that I have watched that day is that the problems of street children and juvenile delinquents are much related social problem. According to the children in that video in order for them to survive in the street they have to become delinquents. They are exposed to criminal elements they are so vulnerable to prostitution, drug addiction and pushing and commission of crimes. Most of these street children have become Juvenile Offenders or Juvenile Delinquents it is either out of necessity because they are poor or through force because of the syndicates and their very abusive parents. From what I have saw in the Short Film Bunso Juvenile Delinquents were not segregated from the hardened adult criminal in the Jails in the Philippines, with this type of scenario the Juvenile Delinquents after their release in jail they went back in the street with more knowledge of crime. This system of Philippines Jails severely hampered the social integration of the youth offenders after they left prison cells. Chances were high that these young offenders would become chronic delinquents and eventually become hardened criminals of their generation. It is of the utmost importance for the world to understand that children in conflict with the law always have to be separated from the adult prisoners. All children have a right to ask for total protection by the State and the world as these rights are described in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.