Rebut: It is important to pass this bill because many local government units who put children at the heart
of their
work are already benefiting from child-sensitive programs. This is important, as many of children in conflict with
the law commit petty crimes, and could be diverted and immediately referred to community-based programs.
These programmes, which include counseling services, reschooling and vocational training for children and parent
education seminars and microfinancing services for their parents, have proven effective in the reintegration of
these children into society, so that they can live out their maximum potential and make a worthwhile contribution
to their families and communities. It is also to protect children ,12 years and below from unscrupulous syndicates
who seek to use them for nefarious purposes. The bill is beneficial to minors for they will learn their lessons in time
when their commit crimes. It is also beneficial to the family of their victims for they will get justice. Criminalizing
children is necessary to show that their actions were wrong. Children who commit crimes have often grown up in
communities without a structure of control. They may see drug-taking, domestic violence and criminal activity in
their homes, and they have often skipped school. These children must be punished so that they learn the true
costs of their actions. They are less likely to commit further crimes in the future if they know that they will receive
a punishment. In addition, other children are less likely to commit crimes if they know a punishment will follow.
We just want to clarify that According to Representative Mikee Romero on their committee press conference that
held last 2019, that ages 12 or lower hasn’t fully developed their minds but because of the Rational choice theory
which stated that every child has a mindset and a will on their own and also ability to choose what is right and
wrong So somehow when a 12 yrs. old child decide on doing something he/she would be able to foresight the
consequence of that action since he did the action because the child has his/her personal objective or goal.
According to him it is accepted that 12 yrs. old child were held liable for crimes. The abduction and murder of
Jamie Bulger in England in 1993 by two 10-year-old boys demonstrated this. Jon Venables and Robert Thompson
must have known that what they did was wrong, or they would not have lied about it and covered it up. Moreover,
it is important that the criminal law underlines the difference between right and wrong by punishing children who
commit crimes AND ACCORDING TO rep. PEDRO ROMUALDO, THE AUTHOR OF HOUSE BILL 6052, A TWO YEARS
GOVERNOR OF CAMIGUIN, AVERY PEACEFUL ISLAND, MOST OFFENDERS ARE BELOW 15 AND REALLY COMMITS
CRIME BECAUSE THEY DISCERN AND THEY KNOW THAT THEY WILL ESCAPE CRIMINAL LIABILITY. It IS also NOT
CHILD ABUSE AND DOES NOT VIOLATE REPUBLIC ACT 9262 AND 1962 since it wouldn’t promote violence against
these children instead it would enlighten them upon a lot of things they wouldn’t be treated as criminals instead
these would give them opportunity to see life in different perspective that no matter how hard life is crimes
shouldn’t and wouldn’t be the solution to their problems.
If your problem is the facilities are not child friendly and our government is not prepared, we will resolve that. We
will not implement a law if they didn’t foresight the results and the facilities that are congested is one of the
reasons why this bill is important since it just shows the increasing rate of crimes committed by minors and the
problem with lack of facilities or our country is not prepared will go through a process on further developing these
into a child friendly one and it doesn’t really happen in just a day it would take effort but it is possible in achieving
so.
Your side always says that it is because of poverty, everybody is a victim of circumstances specially those who are
less fortunate. The government are already exerting efforts on resolving the problems of poverty but it is also
important to resolve the effect so that the problem would be fully eradicate and wouldn’t cause greater problems.
Also, sometimes illegal groups will use these children to commit crimes since they know that they won’t be
punished these rules is being misused through this law it would pave a way in lowering the cases wherein children
are part of such crimes. The problem on your side is that YOU ALWAYS EMPHASIZE TOO MUCH ON THE RIGHTS OF
CHILDRENS THAT WAS SO CLEARLY STATED IN OUR LEGISLATION, BUT HOW ABOUT THE VICTIM, HOW CAN WE
GIVE THEM JUSTICE.
The main point is that this bill is about reforming enlightening the child so that further crimes could be prevented
and they wouldn’t do something bad when they are actually adults since it would be harder to teach them. In fact,
setting the age of criminal responsibility at 12 provides flexibility in addressing offending behavior by children and
allows for early intervention to help prevent further offending. Let it be resolved that lowering the age of liability
to 12 should be implemented than not.
