Three students dead, a nation divided: Tacloban school shooting sparks debate as PH president and senator differ on youth crime laws

PHILIPPINES: The fatal school shooting in Tacloban City that left three students dead and several others injured has triggered a sharp divide in the Philippine government over how the country should respond to youth crime, with the president signalling openness to lowering the age of criminal liability even as a senator and juvenile justice officials push back firmly against the idea.

President Marcos open to lowering the age, PNP backs 12 as the threshold

Palace Press Officer Claire Castro confirmed that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is open to lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility, which currently stands at 15, ABS-CBN News reported. The announcement followed the Philippine National Police’s (PNP) declaration of support for lowering the age to 12 in the wake of the Tacloban tragedy. This stance has quickly gained traction in certain quarters of the government and the public amid widespread outrage over the shooting.

Senator Pangilinan: strengthen the law, don't rewrite it

According to the Philippine News Agency (PNA), Senator Francis Pangilinan pushed back strongly against this position during a Facebook Live discussion with Juvenile Justice and Welfare Council (JJWC) Executive Director Tricia Clare Oco. Pangilinan argued that lowering the minimum age of criminal responsibility to 10 years old would fail to address the root causes that drive children into conflict with the law in the first place.

“Rather than amend the law, it’s to strengthen the enforcement of the law,” he said, calling instead for stricter implementation of existing legislation and stronger family and community support systems as more effective tools for preventing youth crime.

JJWC: The problem isn’t the age threshold

Oco echoed the senator’s position, pointing to research that identifies family dysfunction, peer pressure, community conditions, and poverty, not the age threshold in the law, as the primary drivers of juvenile offences.

“The drivers of violence are not because children know the law. We should really examine the real causes behind these acts because it is not about the minimum age,” Oco said in a translated statement. (“Ang causes talaga, yung drivers ng violence, hindi yun dahil alam ng bata yung batas. Dapat tingnan din natin talaga yung real causes kung bakit nila ginagawa ito kasi it's not about the minimum age.”)

Oco also highlighted the positive outcomes of the law’s existing restorative justice framework, saying that many young offenders, given the chance to reform rather than be incarcerated alongside hardened criminals, had gone on to lead improved lives.

“We have many success stories of children who went astray, though not for crimes like this, and because of the law, their lives have improved.” (“Marami po tayong success stories, sir, ng mga bata na napariwara sila, hindi ganito yung krimen na nagawa nila. At dahil sa batas, ngayon ang ayos na ng buhay nila.”)

Pangilinan reinforced this point, stressing that the law should not be judged solely on exceptional cases, and that many beneficiaries of rehabilitation programmes have become productive members of society.

Both the senator and the JJWC chief also reiterated that minors involved in serious offences can still be held accountable under existing laws through criminal prosecution, involuntary confinement, and court-ordered rehabilitation, depending on their age and assessed level of discernment.

Social media in the crosshairs

On a separate but related front, Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri backed proposals to restrict children’s access to social media in the aftermath of the shooting, arguing that violent content and hateful behaviour online could influence young minds.

“This tragedy should push us to confront a hard truth: The influence of social media on children has become very strong,” he stated, as reported by PNA. (“Matindi na ang influence ng social media sa mga bata”)

Zubiri cited the pending Social Media Safety for Children Act, which seeks to prohibit children under 16 from maintaining social media accounts, and called for a review of the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act to study whether minors as young as 14 who commit heinous crimes should be tried as adults.

A nation grappling with grief and division

The Tacloban shooting has exposed a fault line in how the Philippines thinks about childhood, accountability, and justice. On one side is a growing chorus, backed now by the PNP and at least tentatively by the president, calling for a tougher criminal framework for minors. On the other are juvenile justice advocates and legislators who argue that the answer lies in addressing the conditions that produce youth violence, not in pushing more children into the criminal justice system.

How the government resolves that tension will likely shape Philippine juvenile justice policy for years to come.

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