There is something deeply troubling about a society that is quick to demand the harshest punishment for children, while celebrating convicted plunderers, tolerating corruption, and rewarding leaders who normalize violence.
Young people do not grow up in a vacuum. They learn from the values we model, the behavior we reward, and the systems we build around them. Violence rarely begins at the moment it becomes visible. It is often preceded by bullying, social isolation, neglect, untreated trauma, and countless missed opportunities for intervention.
If we want children to reject violence, then we must also be willing to examine the ways our society excuses, glorifies, and profits from it. We cannot celebrate violence among adults and expect young people to learn a different lesson.
A nation that cannot raise, protect, and supports its children has no future. A nation fails when some of the highest officials of the land see children as young as 10 as criminals. And the audacity of Senator Padilla is just staggering. This proposal is coming from the same senator who just weeks ago sheltered and enabled a fugitive and suspected international criminal, Senator Bato Dela Rosa, all in the name of partisanship. He wants to treat our children as criminals while he gets to protect his powerful, fully adult friends from the law.
https://t.co/0ULqMeeOy7
1. Sa original version ni Kiko, 12 ang MACR.
2. Sa proposed individual amendment ni Miriam, 18 ang MACR.
3. After mag-usap ni Joker (sponsor) at Miriam, winithdraw ni Miriam 'yung amendment at bilang compromise, ginawa ng committee na 15 ang MACR, citing studies from CWC and PLM.
As someone who has spent three decades advocating for children, I find it deeply troubling that his first instinct is to make younger children criminally liable rather than address the failures that allowed this tragedy to happen in the first place.
Three children are dead.
The question is not why a 10-year-old should be punished.
The question is why minors have access to firearms.
The question is why violence continues to find its way into our schools.
The question is why our education, mental health, social welfare, and law enforcement systems repeatedly fail children before a crime is ever committed.
Real leadership requires more than reacting to headlines.
It requires understanding the problem.
Lowering the age of criminal responsibility may generate applause. It may generate media attention. But there is little evidence that it addresses the root causes of youth violence.
Children who commit serious crimes must be held accountable. But accountability should not become a substitute for prevention.
A senator’s responsibility is not merely to propose the harshest response. It is to propose the most effective one.
I have worked with vulnerable children for most of my adult life. Many have been abused, neglected, abandoned, exploited, or exposed to violence long before they ever entered conflict with the law.
It is easy to appear tough on children.
It is much harder to confront the adult failures that create these tragedies.
Before Senator Padilla asks Congress to treat younger children as criminals, perhaps he should explain why government has failed to protect them as children in the first place.
Historically, we don't pay any visa issuance fees. Even after the transition to jvac/vfs, only the processing fee is collected but the actual visa fee is FREE (gratis). News outlets should provide info if this will affect filipinos bec vague news just creates unnecessary panic.
nakita ko sa fb, atty chel is trying to expand the paternity leaves to 105 days. tas ang first reaction ng mga lalake ay "stackable ba to kung marami akong nabuntis?" anong klaseng mentalidad yan 🤦🏻♀️ sakit na talaga ang pagiging ta is nga
@korekim92 Technically it's not prohibited sa system. The problem would be the on-site verification. Will staff allow her kaya to verify for 2 diff accounts? Ang alam ko lang may provision if multiple tiers under 1 account, pero baka ma-flag sa venue mismo if 2 accounts ang ipre-present.