House Bill 6204 seeks to LOWER age of CRIMINAL liability to 12 from 15

Vince F. Nonato - Reporter / @VinceNonatoINQ Philippine Daily Inquirer / 06:35 PM September 06, 2017: Among the likely controversial provisions of the proposed code is the lowering of the minimum age of criminal liability to “12 years of age or below” or “above 12 years of age and under 15 acting without discernment.”

This changes the threshold of 15 years old (or 15 to 18 years for those acting without discernment) as set under Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006, which raised the minimum age of criminal responsibility from the original age of nine fixed by the RPC in 1932.
Another change is the Code’s proposal to let convicts render community services in case of failure to pay fines—instead of the current subsidiary imprisonment at a rate of one day for every eight pesos of unpaid fine.

This ranges from four to six months for grave crimes, one to four months for less grave crimes, and a maximum of 30 days for light crimes.

The RPC provision for the court to consider “the wealth or means of the culprit” in imposing fines, however, was deleted because it violated the equal protection clause.

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