The Philippine Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006 (RA 9344) shifted the legal framework for minors from punitive to restorative. By exempting children 15 years old and younger from criminal liability, the state aimed to protect developing brains from the horrors of the adult penal system, opting for rehabilitation over retribution.
Here in Northern Mindanao in the southern Philippines, major religious leaders advocate for this restorative lens. Archdiocese of Cagayan of Cagayan de Oro Archbishop Jodse Cabantan has rightly pushed for a holistic approach rather than through a strictly legal lens.
Another local independent Catholic Bishop Felixberto Calang of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente correctly points out that lowering the age of criminal liability burdens children with matters that are not their responsibility, arguing that “parents and the state must bear the brunt of rearing children to be responsible.”
He is right to defend the youth, and the state must provide pathways for reform. But we need to take a brutally honest look at the first half of Bishop Calang’s equation: the parents. Children in conflict with the law do not exist in a vacuum. They are birthed into the world and molded by their households.
