<p>
	Proposals include restoring the death penalty and lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 15 to 9.</p>
<p>
	Children as young as nine could be jailed in the Philippines for certain crimes under a proposed law backed by the president.</p>
<p>
	President Rodrigo Duterte&rsquo;s allies have been pushing to pass laws by December that would restore the death penalty and lower the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 15 to 9.</p>
<p>
	Duterte won the May elections largely because of a vow to kill tens of thousands of drug dealers, also promising on the campaign trail to close a loophole in the juvenile justice system that he said allowed traffickers to use minors as narcotic couriers.</p>
<p>
	&ldquo;Adult criminals knowingly and purposely make use of youth below 15 years of age to commit crimes, such as drug trafficking,&rdquo; Pantaleon Alvarez, one of the proposed law&rsquo;s main backers, said in an explanatory note.</p>
<p>
	While Duterte wanted the age threshold dropped to 12, his allies went one step further by calling for it to be lowered to nine.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	Obligations</p>
<p>
	The UN children&rsquo;s agency UNICEF reminded the Philippines of its international obligations.</p>
<p>
	Manila is a state party to the UN convention on the rights of the child, which says criminal responsibility below the age of 12 is not acceptable.</p>
<p>
	A UNICEF spokesman said: &ldquo;Jail is no place for a child. It is alarming for children to be institutionalised. It will be retrogression on the part of the Philippine government.&rdquo;</p>
<p>
	Rights organisations launched a campaign called #ChildrenNotCriminals to urge lawmakers to reconsider their support for the law.</p>
<p>
	One of the groups, Plan International, told AFP that children on the wrong side of the law were often victims of criminal gangs.</p>
<p>
	&ldquo;It is unfair that it&rsquo;s always the children who are blamed. This will result in children becoming hardened criminals,&rdquo; said Ernesto Almocera of Plan International Philippines.</p>
<p>
	The advocates appealed to Duterte to explore factors that led children to commit crimes, such as poverty and lack of parental guidance and education.</p>
<p>
	&ldquo;We cannot hold children to the same standard as we hold adult offenders,&rdquo; Melanie Llana of the Philippine Action for Youth Offenders told AFP. &ldquo;Are we really going to jail 9-year-olds who we know are not fully mature?&rdquo;</p>
<p>
	Duterte&rsquo;s hardline approach to criminals has drawn criticism from its ally the United States, the UN and human rights groups.</p>
<p>
	Nearly 2,000 people have been killed in police operations and 2,800 have died in unexplained circumstances since Duterte took office on June 30, according to official figures.</p>
<p>
	Critics allege some of these deaths amount to state-sponsored extrajudicial killings, a charge Duterte has rejected.</p>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>
<p>
	(Published by TheJournal.ie on the 21st November 2016)</p>
<p>
	<a href="http://www.thejournal.ie/philippines-president-jail-nine-year-olds-3093936-Nov2016/">http://www.thejournal.ie/philippines-president-jail-nine-year-olds-3093936-Nov2016/</a></p>
