‘20,000 children in jails mixed with hardened crooks’

Twenty thousand juvenile delinquents are languishing in different jails all over the country mixed with hardened criminals, the Philippine Bar Association (PBA) said yesterday.

These young offenders are detained in crowded and filthy detention cells, and are made to live in subhuman conditions with little food to sustain their health, the PBA reported.

Worse, they may be doomed to stay locked up behind bars given that they don’t know and understand their rights, said Hector Martinez, newly elected president of the lawyer’s group representing the voice of some 2,000 lawyers, in a speech before fellow members in celebration of Law Day last Friday.

Quoting a study by the Save the Children Foundation of the United Kingdom, Martinez said Filipino children and teenagers are in danger of becoming hardened criminals themselves because of how they are being ignored and deprived of their rights as minors, who do not deserve to be jailed with adults. These adult detainees, he noted, face crimes ranging from simple theft to murders and other capital offenses punishable by death. 

"Unable to learn, much less comprehend their rights, they become the objects of physical and psychological abuse not only from adult inmates but also from prison guards," Martinez said.

"Worse, because of neglect of government authorities and lack of legal representation, many have remained in detention beyond the penalty imposable by law for offenses which they have been accused of or are being tried for," he added.

According to Martinez, the problem of Filipino children and teenagers languishing in jails fit for criminals has been exposed in the international news scene, giving the Philippines a bad image insofar as protecting the rights of the children is concerned.

Martinez stressed something should be done to address this problem at the soonest possible time.

On the their part, he said the PBA will launch a project on free legal assistance and free lawyer services for child and youth offenders who cannot afford the same.

The idea, he said, is to move to rehabilitation centers those who can be transferred, while those found overstaying in jails are to be released without delay.

The PBA, the oldest organization of lawyers in the country, pledged to help solve the problem with the help of its volunteer lawyers.

Overcrowded jails in the country has been a longstanding problem which has yet to be fully addressed.

The Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) notes it needs a higher budget so as to decongest jail facilities and construct rehabilitation centers for youth and women detainees.

Martinez, who took his oath of office as this year’s PBA president at the Manila Intercontinental Hotel in Makati City also last Friday, said it is time for lawyers to act in view of this dilemma.

He vowed to pursue programs and projects aimed at getting child and youth offenders out of city and municipal jails as well as local police precinct detention facilities where they are mixed with adults.

"The PBA will help them. We will work on this," he said.

Martinez also vowed to continue his predecessor, Linda Jimeno’s environmental crusade which resulted in the filing of charges against three Metro Manila mayors who were found violating the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act.

Martinez and the rest of the newly elected officers of the PBA were sworn to office by Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Reynato Puno.

The induction ceremonies were attended by judges, government officials, and lawyers of stature like Justice Jose Peña, GMA-7 president and chief executive officer Felipe Gozon, Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz, President Arroyo’s impeachment lawyer Carlos Platon, and 16 past presidents of the PBA.