Cebu City’s DSWS not ready for influx of young offenders under a lowered age of criminal liability

Operation Second Chance Center, the facility for youth offenders operated by the city government of Cebu.  /CDN File Photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Department of Social Welfare and Services (DSWS) in Cebu City said it is not ready for the projected rise in the number of young offenders should Congress passes the law that lowers the minimum age of criminal responsibility.

DSWS Acting Director Flora Bartolome said they are expecting a surge of young offenders to be housed in the city’s Operation Second Chance Center (OSCC) if the bill seeking to jail lawbreakers as young as 12 years old becomes a law.

House Bill No. 8858 initially proposed to lower the minimum age of criminal responsibility (MACR) to nine years old. But the House of Representatives on Wednesday, January 23,  instead approved on second reading a bill that seeks to  lower the MACR from 15 to 12 years old, and not nine years old as earlier proposed

READ .  Amid public anger, House relents on criminalizing 9-yr-olds

Bartolome said they have been opposing the  proposed law because it could only mean imprisoning more children.

“Supak mi. Bata pa gani, daghan na ma priso. Unya wa sad ta’y facility na ana,” said Bartolome.

(We are against it. They are still young and we are putting them in prison. And we have no facility for that)

But in the event that HB 8858 gets enacted into  law, she said the government should be ready to provide the facility to house youth offenders .

Under under existing laws, children in conflict with the law or young offenders are not supposed to be jailed alongside adults.

Presently,   there are around 80 juvenile delinquents housed in OSCC,  which is located in Barangay Kalunasan. The center is  designed to accomodate only 100, she said. /elb