Juvenile justice

Pinoy Kasi : Juvenile justice

First posted 01:17am (Mla time) May 10, 2006
By Michael L. Tan
Inquirer

Editor's Note: Published on Page A13 of the May 10, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

I HAVEN’T been able to thank Unicef and the Philippine Press Institute for the “Outstanding Column on Children” award they gave me last month. It’s the third year in a row that they’ve given me the award, and this time, it was for a column (“Kids behind bars”) that I did last August, focusing on the plight of Filipino children thrown into jail, sometimes held for extended periods without trial.

A week after the awards, I read that the President signed Republic Act 9344, the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006. We should be congratulating Sen. Francis Pangilinan for being so persistent in getting that law passed, a major victory for child welfare advocates. Now the hard work begins, and the first step is to get the public to understand this new law.

Not criminals

Even without detailed implementing rules and regulations, the law is quite comprehensive and could eventually become a model for other countries. Let’s look at some of its major provisions:

A Juvenile Justice Welfare Council will be set up to implement the law. This council will be under the Department of Justice, but headed by a Department of Social Welfare undersecretary.

The law is clear in explaining that we are not dealing with criminals. What we have are “children in conflict with the law.” A child 15 years old or below at the time he or she commits an offense “shall be exempt from criminal liability.” The same provision applies to those aged 15 to 18, but with a difficult provision: “unless he/she has acted with discernment.” For serious offenses, the offender could be sent to a rehabilitation center, but definitely not a prison. (The situation was so bad at one time that we even had minors sent to Death Row!)

There are additional safeguards now even for the initial apprehension and investigation. For example, the police are not supposed to display or use firearms, weapons or handcuffs unless absolutely necessary, and only after other methods of control have failed. I have to commend Senator Pangilinan and others involved in drafting this law for being so sensitive to the needs of the young. I’ve talked with so many young urban poor youth with traumatic memories of handcuffs, for example.

Exemption from criminal liability does not mean total impunity, with provisions for “diversion programs” that will include, among other activities, mediation and conflict resolution, reparation for damages, a written or oral apology and counseling, anger management training, vocational training and community service.

Child-rearing schizos

The new law talks about the role of the family, the educational system, even the mass media in the prevention of juvenile delinquency. We could start by “interrogating” our culture, as it relates to child-rearing.

When it comes to child-rearing practices, we can be quite schizophrenic. We can be very loving, to the point of being excessively indulgent and giving in to whatever the child wants. Yet, I’ve seen this indulgence alternating with great harshness, often depending on the parent’s mood. I know many Filipino parents, very good and kind people, who will insist corporal punishment is necessary for discipline, with the punishment becoming quite extreme. I’ve seen Filipino children being pinched, slapped, kicked, boxed in public. “Milder” but still reprehensible forms of child discipline involve verbal abuse: I am shocked at how a child is called “gago” and “stupid” for the mildest of slip-ups.

To complicate matters, we often resort to the use of external authorities to try to get kids to behave. Note how, with younger misbehaving children, Filipino parents will threaten to call the police. With adolescents, parents may actually drag the child to a police station and beg them to jail the child “to teach him a lesson.”

Child psychology studies have shown corporal punishment and shaming tactics don’t work. The handcuffs, the police and “barangay” [village] officials’ own verbal abuse -- these do not help the young to respect the law. Instead, they become even more contemptuous of authority. With young boys raised on machismo values, defying the law might even be seen as a sign of courage and valor.

‘Mabait’

Besides looking at the deficiencies in our child-rearing, we also need to interview the children who have already come into conflict with the law and to find out what were the trigger points that turned them into offenders.

My own experience, working with students and with urban poor communities, is that when something goes seriously wrong, it’s often an unhappy home environment (often a failed marriage where the couple is forced to stay together) that produces tensions, even hostility. When the child comes into conflict with the law, it’s usually a mixture of motives: defiance together with a desperate cry for attention.

There are, too, youthful offenses involving petty theft, and this I blame on a consumerist society where the young, grappling with questions about who they are, begin to believe all those ads that tell them: “You are what your clothes’ brand names say you are” or “You are what your cell phone is.” I challenge those in the private sector to put their words where their mouth is with regard to “corporate social responsibility” and examine their marketing gimmicks.

And the adults?

As I read Republic Act 9344, I kept thinking, “What about the adults?” Some of the proposed interventions in RA 9344 could be useful for adult offenders, whether in jail or out. Anger management skills are one. Even in the hallowed “civilized” halls of the University of the Philippines, I’ve had to live in the shadows of faculty and administrative personnel who fly into rage and inflict physical harm, which then results in administrative charges and hearings that just drag on and on for years, making life more difficult for the victims. I’ve always felt a better solution is to negotiate with these offenders: “Go through psychiatric counseling and we won’t file charges.”

Helping adult offenders will eventually benefit the young. Think about it: Most of the adult offenders with cases of assault are really little boys who refuse to grow up. And when these guys become fathers, their sons look up to them as role models, picking up the idea that to get your way, you need to rage and to resort to force.

RA 9344 is really a form of affirmative action, addressing a question of class inequity. Let’s face it, rich kids don’t get thrown into jail. The less fortunate, the poor, are thrown into jail at age 14 or 15. In the company of street-wise, hardened inmates, these kids are condemned for that one raging lapse of judgment, while their richer counterparts just go on to become nastier bullies.

RA 9344 will keep our young out of jail, but they will still have to cope with the harsh realities of home and street life. Juvenile justice will require more than one law and much, much more work with the adults who shape the lives of the young.