Rody quotes Suu Kyi on lowering criminally responsible age

President Duterte has quoted democracy icon and Myanmar state counselor Aung San Suu Kyi to justify efforts to lower the age of criminal responsibility from 15 to 9.

In a press conference Saturday night, Duterte said he agreed with Suu Kyi when she said that human rights are accompanied by responsibilities.

“It was Aung Suu Kyi. She said that if there is every right, there is always the responsibility. So if you are given the right to live by God, you have a responsibility not (to take) other people’s lives,” the President said.

“And she was very correct. When you have a right, you have a responsibility too. It’s not just a right. You have your human rights, yes, correct. But that human right given to you must be used by you to preserve human rights also,” he added.

Duterte was asked how the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) being chaired by the Philippines would curb illicit drug trade in the region.

Suu Kyi, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for opposing military rule, was the head of Myanmar’s delegation during the recently concluded ASEAN summit.

Duterte criticized anew the law raising the age of criminal responsibility to 15, a measure that he claimed caused “lawlessness” in the Philippines.

Sen. Francis Pangilinan pushed for the law, which was supposed to protect the rights of juvenile offenders.

“I chose to keep quiet because he’s (Pangilinan) a friend. But if you ask me, who is responsible for the lawlessness now of these – well, grown-up gangsters now. They were the ones who vented out,” Duterte said.

“We produced a generation of criminals. Whatever was the crime: rape with homicide and robbery; robbery with rape, homicide; or homicide, rape. Below 15 years old, they are not detained even for a minute,” he added.

Pangilinan, a member of the opposition, has denied that the present law allows juvenile delinquents to get away from their crimes. He said his amendment made it mandatory for children to be confined involuntarily for less than a year if the child commits serious offenses like rape, murder and homicide.

But Duterte insisted that the Pangilinan law, which he said was copied from the US, was “shortsighted” and a “disaster.”

“In America, yes they are not in prison, but they are sent to correctional facilities. Here in the Philippines, it was not the same because the legislation failed to provide the remedy after the arrest,” he said.

“When he (minor) would say that ‘I am a minor’ and he produces a birth certificate, he goes out… They were never detained even for a minute.

“They have been rounded up, arrested. Serious crimes and sometimes a neighbor raping a neighbor and then when he’s out, he would shout: ‘I’ll rape you again’,” he added.

Duterte also reiterated his support for the restoration of death penalty, saying that other countries are imposing capital punishment.