Philippines' Duterte pushes plan to lower age of criminal responsibility from 15 to nine
The age of criminal responsibility may be lowered from 15 to nine in the Philippines as president Rodrigo Duterte's deadly war on drugs and crime continues.
Mr Duterte has pitched the move as a way to stop a "generation of criminals" in its tracks, The Washington Post has reported.
Child thieves and drug runners must be "taught responsibility", he has said.
The draft bill alludes to the "pampering" of young offenders.
Human rights groups have hit out at the move saying that they are both cruel and counterproductive and arguing that children exposed to the drug trade are very far from pampered.
Children as young as four have already been killed in the crossfire of ongoing state-backed killing spree.
Thousands of others have lost a parent, often the family breadwinner to the violence, which has claimed 7,000 lives in seven months and even more have witnessed the killings.
The Children’s Legal Rights and Development Center executive director Rowena Legaspi said the war has been violent.
"Torture, summary execution and extra judicial killed have been used to eradicate suspected drug users," Ms Legaspi said.
She said the bill will now go further to "legitimise" state-led violence against children.
Danica May Garcia, five, was fatally shot by unknown assailants who had come for her grandfather, a drug suspect in August 2016.
In a separate incident a 4-year-old was inadvertently shot in a "buy-bust" operation, caught between her drug suspect father and police.
When asked about their deaths in an interview with Al Jazeera, Mr Duterte said the dead children were "collateral damage" in his campaign.
"We have three million drug addicts and it's growing," Mr Duterte said.
"So if we do not interdict this problem, the next generation will be having a serious problem.
"In my country, there is no law that says I cannot threaten criminals.
"I do not care what the human rights guys say. I have a duty to preserve the generation. If it involves human rights, I don’t give a s---. I have to strike fear."
Experts say that poor children will suffer most if the new bill passes.
The majority of the killings target low-level users and dealers.
A recent report by Amnesty International has called it a "war on the poor".
One veteran child-rights worker told the Washington Post that some of Manila's most marginalised children, including orphans and those living on the streets, were being picked up by police officers who needed "numbers".
Young children are being arrested for "having a tattoo or for looking thin, like a drug user" she said.
Ms Legaspi said that while children are being used by drug dealers to commit crimes.
"We point out that these children are victims," she said.
"Children should not be punished by putting them in jail at [an] early age.
"Then they will live in a culture of criminality. Young children will mix with adults or with 17-year-olds who committed murder."
Meanwhile, thousands of supporters and foes of Mr Duterte joined large rallies in Manila on Saturday, highlighting how his brutal drug war has polarised the Philippines.
A prayer rally for his anti-drug crackdown drew the biggest turnout, estimated by police at up to 200,000 although AFP reporters said it looked a lot less.
"Your presence here showcases the strong support that your president continues to enjoy," Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre told the crowd at the prayer rally, who lit candles and sang religious songs.
Duterte critics including ex-leader Benigno Aquino and Vice President Leni Robredo, who was elected separately from the president, joined one of the other rallies held near the national police headquarters in Manila.
This gathering marked the 31st anniversary of the victory of a pro-democracy movement that culminated in a bloodless "People Power" revolution that ended the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship.
Some at this rally criticised the drug killings, many of which have been described by international foreign monitors as state-sanctioned murder.
The protesters warned they foreshadowed another dictatorship. By nightfall some sections of the protesters were openly calling for Duterte's removal from office, chanting "Down with Duterte".
Newsbreak – February 27
