91. The age for compulsory schooling is defined by Department of Education Order 65. Age six is the child’s entry to grade one. Elementary education of six years is completed at eleven years of age. With four years in high school, free education ends, at age fifteen, which is also the minimum age for admission in any undertaking except in employment that endangers the child’ life, safety, health, morals or impair his/her normal development.

 

281. The following measures were adopted in particular relative to the minimum ages for admission of a child to employment and the conditions of such employment:

(a) RA 7658 - An Act Prohibiting the Employment of Children Below 15 years of Age in Public and Private Undertakings provides exceptional cases when a child below fifteen years of age may be employed, i.e. under sole responsibility of parents and such does not endanger his/her life safety, health, morals, and the child goes to school. The child may be employed in public entertainment when such is essential and when the child agrees and the contract is concluded by the child’s parents and approved by the DOLE. The employer should ensure the protection, health, safety, moral and normal development of the child. The employer should institute measures to prevent the child’s exploitation or discrimination, taking into account the level of remuneration, the duration and arrangement of working time. The employer shall implement a continuing programme of skills acquisition for the child;

(b) Articles 107 – PD 603 stipulates the conditions under which children aged fifteen may be employed; Articles 108 and 109, refer to the duty of the employer to submit report and maintain a register of children employed with data of birth, written consent of employment, educational and medical certificates. Article 110 provides for the support by the employer for the education of an employed domestic helper who is below sixteen years old;

(c) Article 112, PD 603 stipulates close collaboration between employment and management of the condition of employment and management of the condition of employment for working children; Article 113, allows time off without loss or reduction of wages for working children with special talents to enable them to pursue formal studies. Article 114 provides that welfares programmes be undertaken by management for working children. These measures are implemented to prevent economic exploitation of children sixteen to eighteen years of age.

92. The Family Code provides that contracting marriage shall require parental consent until the age of twenty-one. There is now no difference between girls and boys age of marriage without parental consent.

13. The Passage in 2006 of Republic Act 9344, “An Act Establishing a Comprehensive Juvenile Justice and Welfare System, Creating the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Council under the Department of Justice, Appropriating Funds Therefor and For Other Purposes” otherwise known as the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act (JJWA) has raised the minimum age of criminal responsibility in the country from nine (9) to fifteen (15) years.

80. […] RA 9344 or the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006 provides under Section 6 that “a child fifteen (15) years of age or under at the time of the commission of the offense shall be exempt from criminal liability. However, the child shall be subjected to an intervention programme pursuant to Section 20 of this Act”. It further provides that “a child above fifteen (15) but below eighteen (18) years of age shall likewise be exempted from criminal liability and be subjected to an intervention programme, unless he/she acted with discernment, in which case, such child shall be subjected to the appropriate proceedings in accordance with this Act”.