House panel rejects lower age of criminal liability

MANILA, Philippines - A House subcommittee decided yesterday to spare child offenders from imprisonment by keeping the age of criminal liability at 15 years instead of reducing it to nine years.

The subcommittee on correctional reforms made the decision despite repeated prodding from President Duterte and Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez for lawmakers to pass a law putting juvenile criminals in jail.

Alvarez is the author of one of several bills making children aged at least nine years liable for their crime.

He has told his colleagues in the House of Representatives that the lowering of the age of criminal responsibility from 15 to nine is Duterte’s second top priority legislative measure.

Alvarez said the restoration of the death penalty tops the President’s legislative priorities, prompting the House to approve it in March.