MINORS AS DRUG MULES

Some law enforcement officials are arguing that the minimum age for legal liability should be lowered, because criminals are using young children as drug mules. I think that is a rather simplistic way of looking at the problem, to lower the age to make it easier to catch them. I think that there is no problem with keeping the present age of 18 and above for legal liability in the Philippines, for as long as we are ready with the youth detention centers, and I do not mean jails or prisons. I say that because apparently, some law enforcement agencies are mixing young detainees with older adults. I think there should be no problem about catching children who are aged below 18, as long as they are not mixed in with older adults who may actually be older adults who could influence them to become hardened criminals as they grow up. A good approach would be to place these younger children in foster homes, but apparently there are not enough foster homes that could absorb them. For some reason, there is only one Boy’s Town in the whole country, and that is a sad reality because these residences would have been very good alternatives to foster homes. Since we know that the DSWD is probably overloaded with these children and they are also lacking in budgets, it is about time that all LGUs should be required to put up their own Boy’s Town. IKE SENERES/09088877282-01-02-2024