MY FAVORITE DRUG-BATTLING PRESIDENT HAS HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS PISSING IN THEIR PANTS

Duterte Harry strikes again: Filipino president wants to jail children as young as NINE as part of his war on drugs which has claimed almost 8,000 lives

By Darren Boyle | Daily Mail | February 13, 2017

Hard-line Filipino president Rodrigo Duterte is planning to slash the age of criminal responsibility from 15 to nine.

Allies of the the controversial president, who has been dubbed 'Duterte Harry' over his vigilante approach to dealing with drug crime, want him to implement the change as well as reintroducing the death penalty.

The policy has received condemnation from the United Nations who have described the plan as 'wrong from every angle'.

Currently the age of criminal responsibility in the Philippines is 15 but allies of the hard-line president want it restricted. In England and Wales, the age is 10, while in Scotland, it is 8, but a child cannot be prosecuted until they are 12.

Lotta Sylwander, Unicef's representative in the Philippines told the Guardian: 'If they grow up, spending their teenage years in a prison, they most probably will be damaged for life.'

Campaigners fear that if the age of criminal responsibility in the Philippines is reduced and combined with the re-introduction of the death penalty, children as young as nine could face execution, especially if they are involved in the drugs trade.

Sylwander has warned that children are unable to understand the consequences of drug crime at such a young age.

She said: 'It seems he rarely listens to facts, or doesn’t find out the facts before he talks.'

She added: ' It seems there is less effort to get the big guys. You shoot the small gangsters or the small drug traders in the slum areas and the poor areas. But there seems to be no real, concerted efforts to get the big drug lords in the country. And there are quite a few.'

Duterte was elected president in May.

Since then his anti-drugs campaign has caused an international outcry, with human rights groups alleging widespread summary executions by police operating with impunity.

More than 7,700 people have died since the firebrand leader took office seven months ago, more than 2,500 in what police say are shootouts with drug suspects.