Urgent Appeal for the Philippine Congress to pass the Comprehensive Juvenile Justice Bill into Law

By Coalition to Stop Child Detention Through Restorative Justice

EVEN as the run-up to the May polls heats up, and as politicians flash victory signs and captivating smiles, thousands of children— beggars, laborers, prostituted girls, street kids, and those suffering from mental disabilities—languish and get violated in hundreds of police jails all over the country.

Without redress.

As Filipino political leaders swing into the campaign mode—we urge them to immediately pass into law the Comprehensive Juvenile Justice Bill to stop the assault upon the dignity and humanity of thousands of children of the poorest of the poor.

The Comprehensive Juvenile Justice Bill raises the age of criminal liability from nine to 12, as well as provides for a system of diversion from the point of arrest to spare children from the horrors, stigma, and trauma of incarceration and contact with the criminal justice system.

More importantly, the bill puts emphasis on preventive approaches to criminal behavior as well as the non-recurrence of crime among our children and youth through the proactive involvement of the family, community, school, and other institutions.

During the remaining days of its session, we urge Congress to pass into law the Comprehensive Juvenile Justice Bill to help stop the violence and atrocity committed against thousands of children of the poorest of the poor.

We call on Philippine Congress to heed the voice of humanity by passing into law the said bill that is meant to provide an Ombudsman for Children who would oversee and centralize the multifarious functions of dealing with children in conflict with the law based on the restorative justice framework.

We call on Philippine Congress to fulfill its duty to provide legislative remedies and redress to the unlawful discrimination, torture, cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment and punishment of the children of the poorest of the poor pursuant to its obligation under Article 2 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

We call on our political leaders to exorcise right at this moment—by passing into law the Comprehensive Juvenile Justice Bill—this mark of shame before the generations of children of the world who are yet to come….

Children prisoners mostly come from families earning P2,000 (US$35.95) to P4,000 (US$71.9) a month, based on the 1990-2002 findings of the Social Services Development Department of the Quezon City local government, that runs the Molave Youth Home for children detainees.

It is on account of their extreme poverty and political powerlessness that the Philippine government—through the Philippine National Police—commits, with impunity, egregious forms of human rights violations such as rape and torture—as a part of its own institutionalized, widespread, organized, and systematic practice of unlawful discrimination— against children of the poorest of the poor in violation of international customary law.

No less than the office of Senator Francis Pangilinan disclosed that last year 20,000 children have been arrested and detained. This means that 54 children get locked and mixed up with adult prisoners everyday due to the said de facto state norm and practice as far as children under arrest are concerned.

The Philippine Public Attorney’s Office reported having served 13,300 children in conflict with the law in 2002, which means that 36 children have been locked up with adult prisoners during the period.

These are mostly 15 to 17 year olds who get raped, tortured, tattooed, and brutalized by state agents and adult prisoners on a day-to-day basis without any form of remedy and redress.

Yet, the government concealed this barbarity in its second country report to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child recently.

These are the poorest of the poor children whom the state deprives of access to medical, social, psychological, and legal assistance and services during police custody in cramped jails packed with adult prisoners over long periods.

This constitutes torture per se. The widespread, organized, and systematic jailing of children prisoners in cramped jails in the company of adults nationwide—bereft of adequate food, sleeping provisions, ventilation, and sanitation facilities—and subjected to indignities and atrocities, constitutes torture as well as inhumane, cruel, and degrading treatment and punishment. This flagrantly violates not only the Torture Convention but the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child as well.

This constitutes a crime against humanity.

As early as 1925, the League of Nations enjoined all governments to render succor and assistance to all defenseless and marginalized children. The Philippines however does the worst thing possible on earth.

Not only does the state renege on its own treaty obligation. It does exactly the opposite by terrorizing children who live in the shadows through various forms of indignities perpetrated by its own police who routinely subject them to unlawful discrimination, torture and other forms of cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment and punishment on account of their being social outcasts.

Instead of fulfilling its international human rights obligation to respect, protect, and fulfill the human rights of children in conflict with the law, the state brutalizes and transform these children into hardened criminals by dehumanizing and emasculating their dignity and human rights, thereby worsening the peace and order concerns of the people.

Subjecting children to prolonged detention occasioned by protracted legal proceedings and retributive laws administered by child insensitive players exacts long-term socio-economic and political costs on the part of the nation.

For queries, please contact
Atty. Perfecto G. Caparas II
Coalition to Stop Child Detention Through Restorative Justice
Email address:
[email protected]
[email protected]