Senator Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino yesterday said the House of Representatives’ measure that lowers the age of criminal liability to nine would be rejected by the Senate.
“The laws that we have now, maybe there’s room to tweak it, but to go this drastic to lower the age of criminal liability to nine is crazy, is cruel, and to be honest, I think, it’s immoral,” Aquino said.
“I absolutely doubt that this will pass the Senate. I think there’s enough in the Senate currently who know that lowering the age of criminal liability to nine years old is completely out of bounds,” he added.
“We don’t have to look at this on a legal or constitutional basis, we only have to use our common sense. Are we really going to jail a nine year old?” the senator asked.
Aquino said the government should help rehabilitate minors who have problems with the law, not punish them for their actions.
He called for the allocation of funds for the construction of facilities like Bahay Pag-asa to help rehabilitate minor offenders.

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