(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday, Jan. 23, said he would have wanted the minimum age of criminal responsibility pegged at nine, but was “comfortable” with it being pegged at 12 nonetheless.
According to Duterte, who spoke to reporters in Pasay, if the minimum age of criminal responsibility was pegged at nine years old, the children’s parents would be “conscious of the criminal accountability already.”
“Yun ang original law bago pinakiilaman ni (Senator Francis Pangilinan),” he said.
Pangilinan authored the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act, which pegs the minimum age of criminal liability to 15 years old.
“Return to the original law but if you have some other ideas in mind, I’m open to it,” Duterte said.
On Wednesday, Jan. 23, the House of Representatives passed on second reading a bill lowering the age of criminal responsibility.
Under the amended bill, though, the minimum age of criminal liability was pegged at 12.
The bill that hurdled the House justice committee had pegged the minimum age of criminal responsibility at nine.
In the Senate, there is a pending bill calling for the lowering of the same to 13 years old.