History of juvenile delinquency in the Philippines?

Answer 1

The video footage was as shocking as it was disturbing: on a busy Metro Manila thoroughfare with crawling traffic, a gang of very young boys run to a taxi, open the three passenger doors, spring into the taxi and in a split second, dart out and dash off back into the highway.

The video captured a case of highway robbery, using juveniles, and was used at the beginning of this week's episode of Tina Monzon-Palma's "Talkback." The show focused on Republic Act 9344 or the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006, which exempts those aged 15 and below from criminal liability.

That law is now being blamed for an upsurge of crimes involving minors, ranging from burglaries and holdups to drug pushing. Sen. Francis Escudero is now proposing a suspension of that law while Sen. Vicente Sotto has called for lowering the age of criminal liability down to 12, and says he is willing to bring it down to as low as 9 if people want that. These proposals have met with popular support from a public that's understandably fed up with the juvenile offenders, and with feeling helpless.

I have personally been affected by this upsurge on three occasions. The first time was two years ago, when my house was burglarized by three young boys who were able to get through the small space on top of our main gate to get into the house. They took off each with a bike but were caught by the barangay tanod shortly after.