Council to Tabunan: Don't enforce curfew ordinance just yet

CEBU, Philippines - The City Council has advised officials of the mountain barangay of Tabunan to refrain from implementing a barangay ordinance that declared as illegal for teenagers below 17 years old from leaving their houses starting 10pm until 4:30am the following day.

 The barangay ordinance fines each violator P100 but the same has to be reviewed by the City Council.

 Councilor Edgardo Labella, chairman of the City Council’s committee on laws and ordinances, said the barangay ordinance is contrary to law because it failed to take into account the provisions of Republic Act 9344.

 Labella explained that the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act exempts a child 15 years of age or below at the time of the commission of the offense from criminal liability, but the child can be subjected to an intervention program pursuant to the same law.

 The law further provides that a child above 15 years but below 18 years of age shall likewise be exempt from criminal liability and be subjected to an intervention program, unless he or she has acted with discernment.

 “The subject ordinance also suffers from a defect of ambiguity in its definition of the term loiter when it includes the mere act of leaving the house premises as a case of loitering regardless of the circumstances,” Labella added.

 Labella said it cannot be discounted that a minor may sometimes be compelled to go out of the house alone during the hours prohibited by the approved barangay ordinance for some valid reasons.

“The ordinance does not provide for this possibility when it allows only as an exemption the case of the minor leaving the house in the company of his parents or guardians,” Labella said. — (FREEMAN)