Human Rights Committee - Philippine Center for Investigative ...

time without access to legal, medical, social, and psychological assistance
and services.
We are deeply concerned over this continuing human rights violation
perpetrated against our voiceless children, especially in light of the fact that
the turn of the century witnessed the growing number of children in conflict
with the law estimated to have mushroomed to 52,000 last 2004.
In 2003, the office of Senator Francis Pangilinan estimated the number of
children in conflict with the law to have jumped to 20,000. This could be
considered a conservative estimate in view of the lack of monitoring and
documentation on the worsening phenomenon of children in conflict with the
law that is being aggravated by the gnawing economic hardships that
victimize especially the children of the poorest of the poor. In 2002 alone, the
Public Attorney's Office reported having rendered legal aid to 13,300 children
in conflict with the law.
According to Bureau of Jail Management and Penology statistics, there were
1,936 children prisoners throughout the country as of April 2002, on top of
the 96 children prisoners who had been sentenced during the same period.
These children formed part of the 39,038 prisoners' population during the
same period.[1]
Police child detention stands as the official norm, notwithstanding the fact
that the law prohibits police child detention and mandates that a child “from
the time of his arrest be committed to the care of the Department of Social
Welfare.”[2]
Police child detention itself should be criminalized pursuant to the letter and
spirit of the Special Child Protection Act or RA 7610 as nothing could be
more inimical to the psychological, emotional, social, and holistic
development and well-being of children other than incarcerating them over
long periods of time under sub-human conditions. This also contravenes the
law against the infliction of any form of cruel, inhumane, and degrading
treatment and punishment under the 1987 Constitution, the UN CRC, the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Convention
Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment.
The Department of Justice is empowered to institute this diversionary
measure during inquest proceedings based on the principle of parens
patriae. This is also in compliance with the Philippines' treaty obligation.
This move is welcomed by all sectors of society.
The findings of United Nations experts have already shown that subjecting
children to contact with the criminal justice system only exposes them to the
virus of criminality as well as ingrains in them a deep sense of social
antipathy and rebelliousness against authority. After suffering from prolonged
detention occasioned by the snail-paced administration of justice -
aggravated by child insensitive judicial players and retributive laws - children
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