Caged Hatchlings: Fledglings not Convicts

Lowering minimum age of criminal liability is not a solution to lessen child offenders. Several scientific studies and evidences have supported this claim. (Check out:https://fledglingnotconvict.wixsite.com/fledglingnotconvicts/post/experts-also-opposed-lowering-macr )

Almost 2% of the criminal acts in the Philippines are only committed by children, including theft,violence etc. Probably, some of the children has yet caught by the police. According to Juvenile Justice and Welfare Council, the law is not fully implemented. Only 35 out of 114 mandated number of Bahay Pag-Asa are operational. Some of the facilities are yet to build, about 40 provinces. If the lowering age of criminal liability were approved already, there is a possibility that the children in conflict with law will end up in jail with adults due to lack of youth homes. Human Rights Watch indicated that most of the facilities are poorly maintained. Moreover, it is important for a child in conflict in law to be exposed in a good environment as it is one of the factors why children commit crimes. Instead of lowering the MACR, they should implement the law properly. Especially the social workers and the police as they must fulfill their job to be functional enough to conduct rehabilitation and intervention. The children should not be their main target, rather they should focus on how they should find the root of the problem such as poverty, job generation, access to education and basic social services.

Putting a child in jail means taking away the childhood of one. Our personality develops starting at a young age and putting a confused child in jail may cause a change in the point of view of the child, causing their condition to worsen. Hosting proper interventions to children in conflict with the law may be the best suitable.

Children are victims not criminals. Not just for the sole reason of saying that a kid should not put up of being sent to jail for their said "crime", but for also to the fact how most Filipinos blame them just based solely on their actions alone. A child, at all costs should experience what should freedom feel like, a life that they shouldn't feel so afraid of everything, giving them a normal life, not a life behind bars. A life behind bars could affect the child to a already worse state, possibly making the child unstable and making the child have psychological problems as well. It is nice to prevent children from going to a horrible path, however we need to stage a solution for them in a more nicer way, to let them know it is not truly their fault, but for the fault of those that made think that what they were doing is right or needed to do in order for them to survive.