The death of Kian delos Santos is in Sen Kiko's hands, here's why

Senator Kiko Pangilinan, photo from Rappler

"A whole generation of children is damaged because of Kiko Pangilinan."

A blog site Talking Points, connected the killing of 17 year old Kian Delos Santos by policemen during a drug bust to the law authored by Liberal Party Senator Kiko Pangilinan, claiming that the latter is responsible for the minor's death.



The mentioned law is the "Juvenile Justice Welfare Act of 2006" which according to the blog, exempts young criminals from punishment "even if they have committed heinous crimes, push drugs, or act as drug runners".

Under the Revised Penal Code, a child aged nine (9) or below was exempt from criminal liability and a child aged between 10 to 15 was exempt if he acted without discernment and had a mitigated responsibility if he did act with discernment. If the child was aged between 16 and 18, he had a mitigated responsibility.

The statute by Pangilinan exempted all minors aged 15 and below from criminal liability and exempted minors aged 16 to 18 if they acted without discernment.



"Discernment" means that the person reflected and knew the consequences of the commission of the crime.

The President himself condemned the law.

Such is also the opinion of columnist Ramon Tulfo who said, "In this age of television and the Internet, or the information highway, a 14-year-old kid’s maturity is equivalent to that of a person 20 years of age before the advent of multimedia outlets".

"If RA 9344 is a stupid law, what does that make of Pangilinan and his colleagues who passed the law", he added.

Source: Talking Points

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