MANILA - House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez is not budging on his proposal to reduce the minimum age of criminal responsibility to 9.

He belied reports that a compromise to reduce the minimum age of criminal responsibility to 12 has been hammered out.

“That is not true,” Alvarez said.

Alvarez has been leading the charge at the lower house in proposing that the minimum age of criminal responsibility, currently set at 15, be lowered to 9.

• Should the minimum age of criminal responsibility be lowered?

"Nag-aral ako ng law. Iyang 9 years old na yan, mas advanced na tayo ngayon in terms of discernment. Bakit kailangan natin iakyat yan?" he said.

Alvarez also told Cabinet members not to object to President Rodrigo Duterte’s wishes, during a meeting of the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Council (JJWC).

The JJWC includes Social Welfare Secretary Judy Taguiwalo, who is against the proposal to lower the minimum age of criminal responsibility.

• READ: DSWD chief leads charge vs lowering age of criminal liability

"I just reminded the secretaries that they are the alter ego of the president. If they don’t agree with the president, they might as well tender their resignation because as Cabinet secretaries, you cannot contradict the view of the president,” Alvarez said.

ANTI-POOR MEASURE

When a sub-panel of the House Committee on Justice and Correctional Reforms opened deliberations on the proposed measure, Taguiwalo sent a letter expressing her opposition to lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility.

The DSWD chief said such a move has never resulted in lower crime rates. "The Philippine experience and the experience of other countries attest to this fact," she said.

Making the change would likewise result in more children being detained and the government subsequently incurring additional expenditure, she said.

Lowering the age of criminal liability is also "anti-poor" as available data shows that a greater majority of children in conflict with the law come from lower income families, said Taguiwalo.

But more importantly, she said this "violates the fundamental principles of social protection of children as provided for by the law and by international treaties and internationally accepted standards and principles."