EDITORIAL - Juvenile killers

Murder charges have been filed against two teenagers who admitted raping and then killing a seven-year-old girl in Parañaque City last month. Whether Clarissa Pizzara and her bereaved family will get justice, however, is another story.

Under Republic Act 9344 or the Juvenile Justice Act of 2006, whose principal author is Sen. Francis Pangilinan, the two teenagers may never have to pay for their grisly crime. The 13-year-old is exempted under RA 9344 from criminal prosecution. The other accused, being 17 years old, may be detained and prosecuted, but only if the Department of Social Welfare and Development determines that he acted with discernment. How this determination is reached is uncertain; surely the accused, if he has half a brain, will claim that he didn’t know what he was doing when he and the younger boy sodomized Pizzara and then drowned her in a creek.

Both teenagers are supposed to undergo juvenile rehabilitation, if only to ensure that they do not repeat their crime. DSWD officials, however, have admitted that the nation suffers from an acute lack of rehabilitation facilities for juvenile offenders. Those facilities should have been in place before the passage of RA 9344, but lawmakers tend not to bother about such minor details.

And so these days, drug dealers use people below 18 years old as mules including in schools, where the pushers prey on their fellow teenagers. There has been a spike in vehicular thefts, robberies and vandalism committed by thugs below 18. Street children are not scared to be caught sniffing rugby or picking pockets, and their begging for alms borders on harassment and vandalism. In schools, administrators have expressed concern about bullying among students.

The objective of the juvenile law is noble; youths need to be given a second chance. But law-abiding citizens – including children like Clarissa Pizzara – also need to be protected from harm. A 17-year-old who cannot discern that sodomizing and then murdering a seven-year-old girl is evil must be prevented from doing further harm to society. As in any crime, those who are allowed to get away with murder are sure to do it again. RA 9344 needs a second look. A 13-year-old rapist and killer may deserve a second chance, but Clarissa Pizzara will never have one.