EDITORIAL - Where’s the Bahay Pag-asa?

The deadly shooting at the San Jose National High School in Tacloban City has raised questions on the state of juvenile detention and rehabilitation facilities in the country.

Under Republic Act No. 9344 or the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006, as amended by RA 10630, local government units are required to build, fund and operate a Bahay Pag-asa. This is a facility that provides residential care and rehabilitation for children in conflict with the law.

Provinces and highly urbanized cities in particular are required by law to build and maintain such facilities for juvenile offenders.

Yet even Tacloban, classified as a highly urbanized city and provincial capital of Leyte, has not built a Bahay Pag-asa, 20 years after the enactment of RA 9344.

So the two boys who went on a shooting rampage last Monday in Tacloban were instead taken to the Regional Rehabilitation Center for Youth in Gingoog City, where they will be held while undergoing appropriate “interventions” to be determined by the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

Authorities have said that the 15-year-old, who has been assessed to have acted with discernment in the shooting, will face criminal prosecution for three counts of murder, three counts of frustrated murder and over a dozen counts of serious physical injuries.

The 14-year-old, who fired nearly all the gunshots from a 9mm pistol reportedly owned by his policewoman aunt, will stay at the DSWD-run facility in Gingoog as authorities look for a Bahay Pag-asa closer to Tacloban. Or he might spend the rest of his rehabilitation program at the center.

How many local governments have actually complied with the law and built Bahay Pag-asa facilities for juvenile offenders?

The country has an acute lack of facilities to care even for children who are victims of domestic violence and sexual exploitation. Child welfare advocates have lamented that because of this lack, some victims end up being returned to the abusive environments.

Following the tragedy in Tacloban and fears of similar attacks, the debate over juvenile justice has been reignited. It has also directed attention at the state of juvenile rehabilitation facilities.

The government must show that these facilities are in place and reasonably equipped to deter offenders from repeating their crime, once they are released back to the social mainstream. The interventions must also be made known, to help discourage similar attacks.