Do you agree on Juvenile Justice Law?

Philippines
August 4, 2011 3:54am CST
I've heard many complaints about this issue. Almost all complains that this is not a fair law because as we all heard from the news that rampant snatchers and other criminal issues are children / minors. Yes, even me don't want a child to be in jail because they can still have a big place to choose the right path. But this Juvenile Law is abused by older people who uses and teaching children to do a crime and this may also cause that child to be at ease on what his bad doing is. Like for instance, I went to a mall and their was a child sleeping near the entrance of the mall so then, the guard pleasing the child to transfer to other places but the child was angry that makes the guard angry also... then the guard told the child if you are not going to transfer then I will be calling a police and send you to jail. And the child responded " You cannot send me to jail because I am a minor, we are exempted for that"... This is what I am talking about, children nowadays are very active about the happenings on our environment. If you have to answer do you agree the Juvenile Law?
2 responses
jeanneyvonne
@jeanneyvonne (5501)
• Philippines
4 Aug 11
Like any other law there is (even the international law), the juvenile law has its own ups and downs. It's not perfect and even it is imperfect, it takes an ideal situation to get the said law to be implemented properly. In your presented situation, the scenario is blatant abuse of the law. Given that it is poverty is the main root of the problem, the juvenile law is for children who really did commit a crime. The law acts as both protection and at the same time punishment for those minors who unfortunately (or intentionally, depending on the situation) did a crime and have to pay for what they did. It should not be an easy excuse for people or children as defense answer. It is the person with the full knowledge of the law to determine if this scenario is even passable. The law is applicable to everyone but it's not a flimsy excuse for everything. On the other hand, I wonder if the kid even know the provisions of the said law. I'm not a lawyer and my lawyerly background is only legal shows but I think that the Juvenile Law should be put aside for petty instances like this. It's good to know that other people are learning the law but it is disheartening to say that they manipulate the law worse than lawyers do.
jmay1226
@jmay1226 (97)
• Philippines
5 Aug 11
Even if we are not lawyers we should at least knows the importance of our Philippine Laws. I agree with you that juvenile law acts as a protection and punishment for those minors who unfortunately commits a crime whether intentionally or with the guide of an adult. Sad to say that those children were abused and used by adults for their own good. Thanks for your response.
louievill
@louievill (28851)
• Philippines
5 Aug 11
Honestly I'm one of those who believes that our juvenile law needs looking into, as you mentioned it could be abused by parents and criminal syndicates. There is however another way to if I may use the term "circumnavigate" the situation, as in the case mentioned above and in my own personal experience where we caught 3 minors stealing aluminum scraps from my "bodega"( warehouse or storage area)and upon further inspection we found a bottle of contact cement or rugby, a substance commonly abused by minors. In the Barangay hall, instead of calling the police we called up DSWD (department of social welfare) who took custody of the apprehended minors. I think DSWD is best in handling these cases because they could hold them for rehab and knock some sense into the heads of these negligent parents, it's gonna knock some sense because they could lose custody to their children plus the bother it would bring to them