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PANGILINANS JUVENILE JUSTICE LAW

Posted on February 13, 2011 by durianpost Editorial Saving the wayward youth Vice Mayor Rodrigo Dutertes recent call on police to stay away from youth gangs armed with deadly weapons in street riotsand come to the scene only after somebody has died or has been wounded by stabbing or by a shot from a sumpak or Indian arrow is a bit out-of-this world. But the vice mayor has valid reasons to ask police not to intervene in these violent scenes: they themselves could be placed in danger, physically and legally. The hooligans are armed and could kill policemen breaking the fight; the youth being violent, could get a violent reaction from police and earn for the law enforcers charges of human rights violations or at worse, violation of the Juvenile Justice Law for kicking one of the young street warriors in the ass. Government officials like the vice mayor are sworn to protect everybody from harm. In this particular case of police inaction on street riots, he is sworn to protect the youth and the policemen. Given a choice, as he advised the policemen, he would rather that policemen stay away while the fight goes on, and enter the scene only after the smoke of the battle has cleared. We see logic in Dutertes advice. Untimely intervention could cost the life of a policeman, given the degree of violence of youth gangs nowadays. Staying away while the battle is in progress is not about inability by police to contain street violence; it is about preserving ones life and in this case the life of the policemen. Deadly weapons have become normal armaments in these encounters between rival gangs, far from the old days when the fist would do to settle a score, raising risk to life to a higher level, especially for policemen. There has been serious debate on the reasons why todays youth are more emboldened to be in conflict with the law. Parental neglect is one of them, but the juvenile justice act is coming out as a major factor. Stories about young hooligans with birth certificates in their pockets showing them as below 15 years old and fished out to wave at police when they are arrested for crimes is not a joke. Being 15 today under the act has become a passport for

juveniles to maim, kill, rape or do other heinous crimes without being locked up in jail or charged in court. It is an irony that many of these kids do not know the wide range of rights given them by the law. It is the police who know that their hands are tied by the law in the effort to stop violent youths. Under these anomalous set-up that makes juveniles in conflict with the law almost untouchable, the offenders commit crime after crime while society cry in anguish and fear at the violence inflicted on it. Duterte has been persistent about repealing or amending the juvenile justice law, blaming it as behind rising incidence of youth violence, to the point that he is sometimes pushed to make personal comments on its author, Senator Francis Pangilinan. It is nice to hear that the like of Secretary Jesse Robredo of the Department of Interior and Local Government has joined the ranks of those who want the law amended. At least our vice mayor now has friends supporting him in the efforts to amend the Pangilinan law. A critical point in the law is that those below 18 years old could not be made to answer for their crimes, no matter how gruesome, if it is determined that they lack appreciation of the crime they committed. Discernment is the word. To illustrate this anomaly, a guy below 18 years old who shoots dead a rival gang member with a sumpak in the head, could not be made to answer for the crime if he says he thought he was holding a toy gun when he committed the crime. At most, the punishment would be a short stint at social welfare where he is counseled and fed and then released back to society to commit another crime. The worst part of the law gives 15-year olds in conflict with the law the biggest leverage: a boy shoots somebody dead and he goes scot-free because he was an innocent 15-year old who does not know that shooting somebody dead is a crime. Duterte has started the drive to have the law amended. Robredo is taking the same path along with many others who see evil in the Pangilinan act that is now admitted to have emboldened the youth to commit crimes with impunity. The sooner it is amended the better. This not about making life hard for youth offenders. This is about stopping violent juveniles, and protecting society, from doing more violent crimes. Amending the Pangilinan law means protecting the youth in general, and society, in general. RMB

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