Once More for the Children in Prison

 

It is astounding that developed civilized nations like Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Switzerland, South Africa, Hong Kong, Fiji and the United States have 10 years as the minimum age of criminal responsibility for children.  It’s a mark of shame. The United Nations Committee on Children’s Rights says that 16 is the ideal but 14 years of age for criminal responsibility is the minimum. Most people believe this is right. The United States has 11 years as the minimum age of criminal responsibility. It’s wrong that children as young as 10 are being tried as adults. A judge recently in Wisconsin, USA found a 10-year old girl charged with murder of a baby incompetent to be tried in a court of law.

 

The UN recommendation reflects current research in child development and neuroscience, which says that abstract reasoning skills are not fully developed in children aged 12 and 13. “State parties are encouraged to take note of recent scientific findings and to increase their minimum age accordingly, to at least 14 years of age,” the UN CRC said. 

 

It also recommended that “no child be deprived of liberty, unless there are genuine public safety or public health concerns” and that countries increase the minimum age of detention to 16. As child activist Greta Thunberg said, “Believe the science.”

 

Philippine law presently sets the minimum age of criminal responsibility at 15 years of age. However in a retrograde step, some members of the Philippine Congress and Senate want to lower the age to 12 years of age. Most sensible people oppose this move.  

 

The mentality of these congressmen and senators is that children as young as 12 have “criminal minds.” Some had wanted it to be reduced to nine years. They wrongly blame the children for the spread of dangerous drugs. They say without evidence that the children are working as couriers for drug syndicates whereas the evidence shows that many politicians are behind the drug distribution syndicates. Drugs earns money and money is power. There is even a drug war between the political dynasties, 12 mayors and seven vice mayors have been murdered in the past three years. In some cases, the drug syndicate is part of the political dynasty.

 

So this false claim against children is a smoke screen for corrupt, political criminal activity. It sensationalizes the issue, as if children are to be blamed for adult crimes and it is a narrative that conveniently captures the easily swayed feelings of the public and redirects it against the children. The politicians present themselves as knights in shining armor curbing drug distribution and protecting society.

 

The children are made the scapegoats for adult crime. The results so far is that the child prisons of local government are filled with young kids guilty of little more than stealing food in the market, sniffing glue, begging at street intersections or breaking the strict curfew hours because they can’t go home to be beaten and left hungry by violent parents.

 

Children commit in fact only 2 percent of crimes in the Philippines and they are rarely of a serious nature. Theft is the most frequent crime they commit. Their “crimes” are usually taking junks, metal scraps or plastic or cell phone to sell. They are abandoned, rejected by irresponsible guardians.

 

The runaways are surviving on the streets by their wits, sleeping in doorways or in carts and cannot find work. Every day, they need to eat at least once. It may be just one meal of “pag-pag,” the re-cooked leftover scraps of foods from the plates of the diners in restaurants.

 

They are arrested, without evidence or warrants, and jailed indefinitely and have no trial. If they are charged, it takes months or years for a hearing. They are pushed into small cells crowded together without beds in most cases and live in sub-human conditions. The most vulnerable are small boys 10 to 15 year-old. They are abused and bullied by the bigger inmates and almost never see family.

 

Some are abused and beaten by the guards, they claim. In Cebu the Operation Second Chance, a detention center with jail cells and 12-foot high walls, saw the escape of 12 teenage children a week ago. The intolerable conditions drove them to escape. Whereas, in the Preda Foundation New Dawn Home for children-at-risk and children in conflict with the law in Liloan, Cebu the children are free to choose. They can leave at any time but they choose to stay, learn, change and improve their lives for the future. They are treated with respect and dignity and live in good conditions with sports, non-formal education classes and outings.   

 

If you want to help change the lives of hundreds of these detained children, join us in our appeal to the good mayors of Metro Manila who really don’t know about these harsh conditions of life in their Bahay Pag-asa where children’s rights are being violated. The good mayors want to change their cities for the better and you can help them.

 

Gather a group of true Christians in the parish, in the neighborhood, in your club or among office mates, a student group of classmates and make a visit to the Bahay Pag-asa in your province or city. Instead of joining a fraternity, students should make or join a child rights advocacy group. The Bahay Pag-asa is usually near the city hall. Bring snacks for the kids behind bars and write to the mayor and invite him or her to visit the Bahay Pag-asa and send this article. 

 

Advise your mayor that there are national funds available for a new beautiful home for children for each highly-urbanized city and advise him or her to avail of it through the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Council. Spread the word on social media. It will make your city more child-friendly and it will be a project that you, the people, the mayor and city council can be proud of. 

 

Read more on www.preda.org and visit the Preda Foundation Youtube channel.

When Children are Set Free

Recently, we at the Preda Foundation have opened a new home for troubled boys in Liloan a few kilometers outside Metro Cebu. This was possible with the help of our supporters. The children in the Preda homes can be 10 to 15 years old. They are not criminally liable yet jailed like criminals. We rescue them and give them a new start in life.   

I was talking to a group of these young boys who had been taken out of filthy jails and sub-human conditions in the so-called youth detention centers or locked behind bars in jails for children in the Philippines. I have written this in the past but it’s important to remind people of how innocent the child is.

I told the boys now freed and safe at the happy Preda home: "You are the children of God and the most important in God's family. That's why you are here, you are free and have rights and dignity.” Think of God as the force of eternal goodness and the power of love of others and we of good will are united with that force.

They stared wide-eyed with incredulous looks of awe and bafflement. They had just arrived and met the other boys. Jason, ten years old, jumped up, spread out his arms and began to spin around in a playful demonstration of "being free." Everyone laughed and enjoyed the moment.

The boys are living happily in a beautiful home in the countryside and finding and experiencing their basic rights and joys that we, who have never suffered an injustice or been in conflict with the law or lost our freedom, take for granted and so hardly ever cherish and celebrate. You may never value it until it is taken away.

The boys at the Preda Foundation's New Dawn Home for Boys in Conflict with the Law are not convicted and not on trial. They are sent to get treatment and therapy and help for troubled lives. They are free to run wherever they want in the grounds. There are no guards, steel bars, wire cages and brutal treatment which they experienced in the jails and youth detention centers where they were locked up like animals without sunlight, exercise, education or entertainment, affirmation or legal process.

It is the first time for them to experience such rights and respect and for them it is an amazing wonder. We at Preda tell them the truth about themselves, "you are good, you have rights and dignity, you have had a hard life and made mistakes under the bad influence and bad example of uncaring and untrained adults but now you can choose to live another positive way."

They listen with wide-eyed wonder and can scarcely believe this good news since they have hardly ever experienced being loved, wanted, valued, supported, fed and cherished. Instead, they have been rejected all their lives and told they are a burden and pest to their family and society and deserve punishment and imprisonment.

  

Now they are taught, "You are free here at the Preda New Dawn Home for boys. You can decide to stay or leave. Know that you are of importance, of value and are good in yourselves. Do not believe or think of yourselves as bad, criminal or useless young people, you are God's children and the most important in God's family, Jesus said so."

Hearing and knowing this good news, each one, free of fear, no reprimand and punishment, they can develop self-awareness, self-consciousness and begin to grow as persons. It is a vital part of being fully human and something they hardly ever experienced. They feel respected and valued and can have a dream to reach a positive goal. They are assured that they will be helped to achieve a better, happier life for themselves and their future families when they grow up. What attitudes they have today will be how they will treat others in the future. They must learn and grow for the better.

   

These are children and have been branded by parents and society as worthless thieves, drug dependents and social outcasts. But they are not. They have committed no crime, just living abandoned on the streets surviving on their own.

Normally, good children that are misunderstood and unloved and branded as bad will likely become what they are called. Adults and parents must be careful never to physically, verbally or emotionally abuse children. They will rebel and find ways to retaliate. They feel injustice like everyone else.

At times I challenge parents of troubled, unruly and drug-taking children, how is it that your children were born innocent but have become rebellious like this? I ask them, "Why do your children take painkillers, who is causing the pain? How have you treated and spoken to them as they grew up?”  

I advise   parents, "How is it then that your son is here at Preda and has never run away, does not steal, not taking drugs. Here, he is never violent and is helpful, does his duties, attends classes daily and respects the staff and other boys? Is he at fault or perhaps there is a problem in the home.” Parents have never been taught how to be good loving parents. In all schooling, there is no course on how to be a good parent.

What inspires and motivates the youth at the Preda home for boys freed from detention is to know that their parents are willing to cooperate and attend parenting seminars and to accept and admit that they too have mistakes and are willing to reconcile with their child. The parent must change their negative attitudes and love their children. This is what brings hope and a new life to the children.