Davide: National govt should help LGUs build centers for young offenders
Cebu Governor Hilario Davide III says LGUs need the help of the national government to put up youth care facilities for children in conflict with the law (CICLs).| CDN Digital Photo/Rosalie Abatayo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The national government should help local government units (LGUs) put up youth care centers for children in conflict with the law (CICL) should they want an efficient implementation of the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Law.
Governor Hilario Davide III said putting up youth care centers for CICLs may be a burden for the LGUs, especially those that cannot afford to build or run the facilities.
“The problem if you lower the age of criminal liability kay kining mga centers. Ang LGU ana ang magbaguod. Dili raba tanan LGU maka-afford ana if you require all LGUs to have that,” Davide told reporters on Monday, January 28.
Interior Secretary Eduardo Año, during a Senate hearing last week, said the Department of Interior and Local Government will be pressing LGUs to put up their respective ‘Bahay Pag-asa’ amid the passage on third reading of House Bill 8858 that lowered the minimum age of criminal responsibility (MACR) from 15 to 12 years old.
The Cebu provincial government runs only one youth care center, the My Home, located in Barangay Tayud in Consolacion town. However, Davide said My Home can only accommodate about 30 to 40 CICLs.
“Pundohan gyud na nila to have the facility for the CICLs. We have one, kanang My Home. But di man na ka-accommodate og daghan nga mga bata gyud. How about the other province, all the more LGUs, cities and towns, nga wala gyuy centers?” Davide said.
On Monday, the House of Representatives voted 144 to 34 to pass in third and final reading HB 8858 which seeks to amend Republic Act 9344 or the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006.
The fate of the legislation will now be up to the Senate.
Senator Richard Gordon, chair of the Senate Committee on Justice, said in previous interviews that he supports the lowering of the MACR to 12 years old “because the president wants it.”
Davide said he personally would have wanted to MACR to stay at 15 years old but he also noted that raising it to 12 years old was already a compromise since it was originally proposed at nine years old./elb
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