https://www.rappler.

com/views/imho/139336-open-letter-representatives-alvarez-castro

An open letter to
Representatives Alvarez and
Castro
'Why should children be made to pay for the failure of the government and society to raise them
to be the responsible citizens we hope them to be?' a laywer asks

Dear Representatives Pantaleon Alvarez and Fredenil Castro,

Why is it that of all the laws you can propose to make our country a better place, straight out of
the gate, you churn out a bill that wants 9-year-old children charged for crimes?

Nelson Mandela once said, There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in
which it treats its children.

Who is to blame for the loss of a child's innocence? Why should children be made to pay for the
failure of the government and society to raise them to be the responsible citizens we hope them
to be?

Congressmen Alvarez and Castro, look at your 9-year-old son or daughter or nephew or niece.
Will you let them be pried away from your tight embrace? Can you stand the look of horror in
their eyes as they are separated from their sheltered world? Can you bear hearing their cries as
they clutch prison bars with their tiny hands? Will you be able to sleep knowing that they are
wide-awake shaken by the nightmare of a prison cell or an institution?

Please tell us that your answer is no. And please tell us that your answer is no even if that child is
someone else's; even if that child's eyes have seen horrors far beyond his or her years; even if
that child's innocent cries are drowned out by curses; even if that child's hands are calloused and
soiled.

On its surface, your bill does not appear to discriminate between rich and poor, but once enacted
into law, it will result in oppressing mostly, if not only, the poor. And I am not talking about
having less access to justice when one has less in life. Poor children are vulnerable because they
are born into a society that tends to condemn based on social status.

When a 9-year-old gets someone elses things and keeps these for himself or herself without the
permission of the owner, the act is labeled differently depending on who did it. The puppy-eyed
grade schooler who comes from a decent family and goes to a private school is merely capable of
a misbehaviour that can be corrected with proper guidance. The foul-mouthed street urchin is
certainly a thief, and only several nights in jail can teach that child a proper lesson.

If the need to guarantee equal protection does not convince you to change your minds, the lack of
substantive due process should. Criminal responsibility presupposes that the child is able to tell
right from wrong. To be accurate, your bill does state that children nine to below 18 years old are
criminally liable only if they acted with discernment. But science has already established that a
childs brain is not yet fully developed. This means that organically, a child is incapable of
discernment.
To substitute science with the subjective assessment of a social worker, fiscal, or judge is
arbitrary and capricious.

You may argue that when the age of criminal responsibility was increased to 15 years old, the
number of crimes committed by children increased, therefore, the former caused the latter. That
conclusion is fallacious. Correlation does not imply causation.

The problem is more complex than it seems, and the solution, although convenient, is not as
simple as holding children criminally liable. I do not claim to know the answer. But there are
organizations, such as Akay Foundation and Tuloy sa Don Bosco, to name a few, who have had
successes in keeping children-at-risk from offending and restoring children who have lost their
way. Why not learn from them?

Lets begin the difficult task of raising our countrys children with love and mercy as the starting
point rather than punishment. If we put children behind bars, let us not hope for them what we as
adults have not achieved. We have failed to take responsibility. We have failed to save our
countrys soul.

Sincerely,

Patty Sison-Arroyo

(Mother of four children below 15 years old)

Rappler.com

Patty Sison-Arroyo is a lawyer and a professor at the Ateneo Law School. She is a private
individual member of the Council for the Welfare of Children and a member of the global board
of International Justice Mission.