The 13th congress of the Philippines made a great disservice to the Filipino people when they enacted a law that concerns the protection of the youth against of what they called “youth imprisonment.” The lawmakers of both the senate and the lower house approved Republic Act 9344 otherwise known as the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006. The new law was certified as urgent and immediately was singed by the President with finality and the application and implementation of said law was retroactive in nature.
The progressive or lefties blocks in congress, who authored and endorsed the law and the different sectors headed by the Catholic Church and other sects, were happy and rejoicing with the passage of the new law. The law stated that all 15 yrs olds and below are immune from prosecution and should not be held in any government jails. Those 16 up to 18 yrs olds should be taken care of by the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
But after the implementation of the law since 2006, the law became the “Juvenile Criminality Protection Law. With the absolute protection provided by the law, young offenders started to reap the benefits of R.A. 9344 by committing more crimes known only to hard criminals. Filipino youths have shown their viciousness, godless personality, addiction to drugs and other devilish acts which give them authority to wreck havoc anywhere else in the Philippines.
The lawmakers, the government, the religious sectors did not even bother to look into the flaws of R.A.9344. The law is 90% defective because it will only produce millions of young criminals that might put the whole society in danger. The 21st century is quite different and the mindset of people has changed, and so with the youths that are now more than aggressive compared in three or four decades ago.
Maybe the government has the responsibility to amend the flawed law before the saner members of society revolt in disgust. The offending youths are increasing by the day because their lawmakers and their government had encouraged them to be. The people are already bothered by high incidence of rape, drug trafficking/addiction, gang fights, robbery, killings,carjacking and other petty crimes committed by these offending youths.