juvenile delinquency in the philippines
TRANSCRIPT
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Juvenile Delinquency in the Philippines
The forum was held last December 11, 2012 at Lawaan Building L2, it is entitled Boy
Rehas: Juvenile Delinquency in the Philippines the forum starts at 1:20 in the afternoon andended at 4:30 in the afternoon it lasted for almost 3 hours. The first speaker which was the sister
of one of my classmate Atty. Lorraine Ampongan-Marcaida discussed about the law that is
establishing a comprehensive juvenile justice and welfare system in the Philippines according to
her the main focus of the law is to protect juveniles in a number of ways during law enforcement
contacts and in foster care. By the RA it seeks to decreases the incarceration of minors.
According to the Atty. Lorraine the legal definition of Juvenile Delinquent is a person between
the ages of 7 and 16 years of age who commits an act which would be a crime if that person was
adult. She also defines to us the term Juvenile Offender it is a person of age 13, 14 or 15 who
commits more serious or violent acts, and may be prosecuted as an adult. She explained to us
that Juvenile offenders are most likely subject to a more serious penalty than a juveniledelinquent. According to her it is the Supreme Court that tries and hears all cases that is been
committed by a Juvenile but it may be sometimes transferred to a Family Court.
According to the Short movie that I have watched that day is that the problems of street
children and juvenile delinquents are much related social problem. According to the children in
that video in order for them to survive in the street they have to become delinquents. They are
exposed to criminal elements they are so vulnerable to prostitution, drug addiction and pushing
and commission of crimes. Most of these street children have become Juvenile Offenders or
Juvenile Delinquents it is either out of necessity because they are poor or through force because
of the syndicates and their very abusive parents. From what I have saw in the Short FilmBunso Juvenile Delinquents were not segregated from the hardened adult criminal in the Jails
in the Philippines, with this type of scenario the Juvenile Delinquents after their release in jail
they went back in the street with more knowledge of crime. This system of Philippines Jails
severely hampered the social integration of the youth offenders after they left prison cells.
Chances were high that these young offenders would become chronic delinquents and eventually
become hardened criminals of their generation. It is of the utmost importance for the world to
understand that children in conflict with the law always have to be separated from the adult
prisoners. All children have a right to ask for total protection by the State and the world as these
rights are described in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
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