DAVAO CITY (February 13) — President Rodrigo Duterte is entertaining the idea of holding the parents of child delinquents accountable once they are proven to be neglectful of their parental duties.
Duterte said parents should be conscious of the criminal accountability of their children for they too can be implicated on the basis of neglectful parenting.
But, according to Duterte the idea, still depends upon the discretion of the House of Representatives.
Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo emphasized “We are not contemplating. The President is expressing an idea. And it’s on the part of Congress to realize such idea. If they are open to that, then they can do something about it.”
For Panelo, while crime is personal, Congress can still introduce provisions which render parents liable when their child commits a crime.
“I think there should be some kind of punishment to parents if the parents are neglectful either deliberately or recklessly,” the President’s chief legal counsel said.
“Supposedly, the parents are the trainor of children, the moulder of children to become righteous individuals and good citizens,” he added.
The Palace official likewise addressed the concerns of those opposing the bill on grounds of child incarceration, saying that this is not the case in the proposed bill.
“I think the opposition is based on the incarceration of children. Under the proposed bill, wala naman… It’s rehabilitation,” Panelo explained.
He agrees that children should not be put behind bars alongside convicts. “You cannot be putting to jail these minors. You have to correct them, rehabilitate them because they become more hardened kapag kinulong mo iyan,” he added. –NewsLine.ph
