Recently, based on Romero's written report, Senate President Vicente Sotto III filed Senate Bill No. 2026 or Lowering of the age of criminal responsibility from twelve to nine years due to the alarming increase in the number of crimes involving minors. The law seeks to amend Republic Act 9344 or the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006, which exempts children aged 15 and below from criminal liability. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay. Sotto believes that this law will help innocent children who are victims of abuse by criminals, because the criminal organization takes advantage of the law of the republic by using minors to commit crimes, there are serious cases that show that children as young as fifteen years and under beat each other to death, drag an old man out of a utility vehicle to steal his purse and take the jeepney driver's winnings, become couriers for drug syndicates because that they would not be held criminally responsible under the law and they would simply be released back into society and many of them would end up as repeat offenders. The measure of the proposed law seeks to amend Sections 6, 20, 20-A, 20-B and 22 of Republic Act 9344 or the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act as amended so that 'a child under the age of 18 but over 9 years of age at the time of the commission may be held criminally responsible and subject to appropriate prosecution, unless it can be proven that he acted indiscriminately, in which case he will be exempt from any criminal liability and subject to an appropriate intervention program. If passed, the bill would provide an intervention program for children who commit crimes. They will be placed in a rehabilitation center or daycare. In addition, if the crime committed by the child offender is punishable by a prison sentence of 6 years or less (temporary imprisonment), or by perpetual reclusion if it is punishable by a prison sentence of over 6 years old, the bill will penalize children for committing crimes. The reading highlighted the meaning and purpose of Senate Bill No. 2026 or Lowering the Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility, amending Republic Act 9344. It was stated therein that the bill wants to lower the minimum age of criminal responsibility for criminal acts. committed by young offenders. Senator Sotto, who proposed the law, believed it was the best way to end juvenile delinquency. Stages of human development. Every human being undergoes a process called psychological development. Toledo defines psychological development as the development of individuals' cognitive, emotional, intellectual, and social abilities throughout their lifespan, from infancy to seniority. It is also a subject of discipline known as developmental psychology. Bhutia et. al., cited three stages of psychological development, infancy, childhood and adolescence. Early childhood is a period between birth and language acquisition. This is where infant development takes place since it is the first stage of human development. Newborns are endowed with an inclination for certain visual examples such as the human face, specific sounds such as the human voice. After a few months, they can already distinguish their mother visually. The second stage is childhood. This stage is known to be the second important stage of human development. Heusually takes between one and two years before the child reaches adolescence, at age 12 or 13. At this point, the child will experience tremendous progress, compensation, and language use. The child expresses his first word around 13-14 months and around 18 years old, he already has vocabulary words of at least 50 words and he begins to use three-word conversations. The third and most complex stage is adolescence or also known as the puberty stage. . Emotionally, adolescence is the culmination of which individual discovers how to control and direct sex and begins to construct their own sexual role and relationship. Likewise, Jean Piaget's four stages of human development cited by Ansorge. Piaget's stages of development are part of the theory about the phase of normal intellectual development, from infancy to adulthood. The four stages are: Sensorimotor, from birth until 18-24 months. Preoperative, from infancy (18 to 24 months) to early childhood (7 years). Operational concrete, 7-11 years. Formal operational, from adolescence to adulthood. First of all, the sensorimotor stage. According to Piaget, at this early stage, infants only know what is in front of them. They focus on what they see, what they do, and physical interactions with their immediate environment. The infant shakes hands, throws things and puts things in his mouth and learns something through trial and error, this is because he doesn't know how things react yet, he is just experimenting. Once the infant begins to crawl, stand, and walk, their increased physical mobility leads to greater cognitive development. Second, there is the preoperative phase (toddler or 7 years old). During this stage, the language they use becomes more mature. Young children are capable of thinking symbolically. They also develop memory and imagination, which allows them to understand the difference between the past and the future. But they cannot yet grasp more complex concepts, such as cause and effect and comparison. Their thinking ability is based on intuition and is not completely logical. Next to the preoperative stage is the concrete operational stage, the elementary or preadolescent age (7-11 years). At this stage, a child begins to demonstrate logical and concrete reasoning. They begin to realize that their thoughts and feelings are unique and cannot be shared with others. They focus less on themselves. But at this stage, most children cannot think abstractly or hypothetically. Finally, comes the formal operational stage. This is usually at ages 11 and up. During this stage, children are able to use symbols related to abstract concepts, such as algebra and science. They can now develop theories, think about things systematically, consider possibilities, and think about abstract relationships and concepts such as justice. Additionally, in the study conducted by Laycraft, it was discovered that a teenager's mood and characteristics change as their age changes. In young adolescents (10-13 years), children are changeable, have opposing emotions, changing moods, indecision and doubt and are often influenced by their peers. In the middle stage of adolescence (14-16 years), children in this stage have a well-developed emotional system but the cognitive system is still developing. Their mental structure is still in a chaotic state. And finally, at the end of adolescence (18-21 years), the individual can integrate potentially opposing attributes into higher order abstractions. At thisstage, the individual can already support and assume his social responsibility. The readings and literature presented above focused on the stages of human development and adolescent psychological development, in which the article cited by Bhutia et. al., there are three stages of psychological development from infancy to adulthood. It also explains psychological development step by step by Jean Piaget from the sensorimotor stage to the formal operational stage. Furthermore, according to Ansorge, when a child reaches the formal operational stage, he is able to decide for himself because he is able to think creatively and critically. On the other hand, in Laycraft's study, she points out that a child's development changes over time, from early adolescence to late adolescence. Perceptions on Lowering the Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility The current problem of crime, especially among juvenile delinquents in the Philippines, has caused the government to create many ways and solutions to solve this problem. One of them is Senate Bill No. 2026, which aims to lower the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 15 to 9 years. In addition, the President of the Senate, Sotto III, proposes the bill lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility when acting with discernment. , like most countries in the world. Senator Sotto said: “Even in the era of President Manuel Quezón, nine years is already the age of criminal responsibility when acting with discernment. Is it acceptable for a thirteen year old to kill or rape someone? Tell that to the victim’s parents.” The Duterte administration has promised to punish and hunt down criminals as part of its war on drugs campaign. Suddenly, during the ongoing campaign, he noticed that a number of children were involved in various drug-related crimes. Drug syndicates use children as drug traffickers because they are not punished by the law. Due to the increasing rate of juvenile offenders, President Rodrigo Duterte wants the law to pass; he stressed that “children must learn to understand responsibility.” Additionally, many other politicians who support this amendment justify it by comparing it to other countries that have low criminal ages. Several American federal states operate on the basis of common law, at 7 years. The United Kingdom and Indonesia initiate criminal proceedings from the age of 8, while Australian states and territories lower the minimum criminal age to 10 years. The age of criminal responsibility is the age at which a child is considered by law to have understood that he or she has committed a wrongdoing and may be subject to criminal prosecution. Some say it's the act and the severity, not the age of the attacker. Similarly, in Lumintao and Butalid's study, they found that the bill was beneficial for child offenders. Respondents to their study believed it was a way to promote peace, improve public safety; this could prevent children from committing crimes and prevent children who have already committed a crime from re-offending. And this could reduce poverty in the country. Furthermore, they believed that the child in conflict with the law should be imprisoned because he commits criminal acts and it is good for parents so that they take care of their children and become responsible parents. On the other hand, UNICEF, social workers psychologists, human rights advocates and other legislators, to name a few, strongly oppose lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility. Senator Risa Hontiveros is one of the few parliamentarians to oppose the reform..