Over half of complaints in 4th Quarter of 2023 involved minors - Baguio City Prosecutor

Baguio City, Philippines – Instead of attending school, as young people should, a number of minors were reportedly involved in criminal activities in Baguio City.

Citing data covering the last quarter of 2023, City Prosecutor Conrado Catral informed the Baguio City Police Information Office that they investigated a total of 347 complaints during that period.

From the figures, he revealed that 203 cases, or 59%, had minors as suspects.

The City Prosecutor further disclosed that there were also minors involved in complaints subjected to inquest proceedings. He mentioned that out of the 63, 30 of the suspects were also minors.

These cases investigated and subjected to inquest proceedings include violations of Batas Pambansa Bilang 22 or the Bouncing Check Law, theft, estafa, VAWC, child abuse, rape, carnapping, illegal recruitment, robbery, homicide, murder, illegal gambling, and anti-illegal drugs, among others.

In 2016 – 2019, police records showed that around 12,000 minors in the Philippines were involved in criminal activities. More than 1,300 of them faced rape cases, and around 1,000 were involved in the illegal drug trade.