SWS: Filipinos want criminal liability age threshold at 15

MANILA, Philippines — A majority of Filipinos want the minimum age of criminal responsibility to remain at 15 years, according to a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey.

Among those who agreed that juvenile offenders should be placed in jail if they “raped a person,” “killed someone,” “acted as drug couriers,” “snatched a cellphone” and “stole food,” the median age of criminal liability is 15 years, SWS president Mahar Mangahas said.

Sixty-three percent of the respondents agreed that minors should be jailed for rape while 22 percent disagreed and three percent were undecided.

The survey found 59 percent who believed that minors who “killed someone” should be jailed, 24 percent disapproved and four percent were undecided.

For children who acted as drug couriers, 49 percent agreed they should be jailed, 35 percent disagreed and four percent were undecided.

“For these couriers, less than half said they should not be jailed. Half of the people are thinking ‘pinilit lang yun’ (they were forced) or ‘may bully’ (there’s bully in) the neighborhood. They did not do that on their own accord,” Mangahas said in a press conference at the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) office in Quezon City.

For cellphone snatching, 28 percent agreed and 62 percent disagreed that they should be jailed. For those who “stole food,” eight percent agreed and 84 percent disagreed they should be imprisoned.

Among those who disagreed on imprisonment, more than seven in 10 Filipinos said juvenile offenders should be placed under the custody of the Department of Social Welfare and Development. Eleven percent said they should be placed in barangay custody.

Two to five percent of the respondents supported moves to place them in Bahay Pag-asa facilities.

The survey, which was funded by the European Union and Spanish Cooperation Agency, has an error margin of plus or minus six percentage points.

“The least reliance is on Bahay Pag-asa, which may be interpreted as a low awareness of Republic Act 9344 or the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act,” CHR Commissioner Karen Gomez-Dumpit said.

“The information that there is no responsibility or accountability for children who commit crimes is a false assertion,” Dumpit added.

She said the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act was enacted into law to ensure that juvenile offenders are attended to and guided through interventions and diversion programs so that they would be redirected to be responsible members of the community.

“Lowering the age of criminal liability is against our obligation as a state party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The results of this survey show that the public opinion is toward 15 as the minimum age of criminal responsibility,” Dumpit said.

The survey was conducted in Metro Manila from July 13 to 16 and in other parts of the country from Dec. 18 to 22 last year. It used face-to-face interviews of 1,500 adults nationwide.