Those medical experts correlate age, brain development, and mental state. Through centuries of knowledge they know the interests and motivations of infants, toddlers, pre-pubescents, pubescents, adolescents, and adults. Those include developing, in stages, of motor senses, child skills, play, inquisitiveness, boy-girl consciousness and orientation, rebelliousness, independence, initial and deeper sensing of right and wrong. Those stages can be disrupted by neglect, abuse, abandonment, psychological traumas, or brain damage. Adult standards do not all apply to minors.
The rush to lower the age of criminal liability to 9 is related to the scourge of drugs and other heinous crimes, like plunder and terroristic murders.
Yet it is not the 9- or even 15-year-old who sneak 605 kilos, then 11 tons of shabu past Manila Customs through printing cylinders and magnetic lifters. Those are the handiwork of sophisticated criminals with extensive contacts. Go after them, along with heartless lawmakers preoccupied only with pork and power.
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