Young Criminals

"Youth is the hope of our nation."

That is how our national hero, Dr. Jose P. Rizal described the youth of our generation. But what we see today is the contrary of what Dr. Rizal said. Most of the youth today are engaged into no. of crimes at a young age. So we ask ourselves how these young individuals became delinquent. It doesn't happen only in the Philippines. In other countries, especially in America this is one of their majority problem. Because the youth of today are aggressive, fearless, and very outgoing.

 Earlier this year, the capture of Jason Aguilar Ivler became a hot topic on the news. Ivler is a Fil-Am taking his vacation here in the Philippines. Until he is engaged in a car accident while he is driving on C5 Road last August. And he was also the suspect for killing Renato Ebarle, Jr. And it was discovered that Jason Ivler was the suspect for killing the former congressman of Manila, Nestor Ponce, Jr. Because his family can afford bail. He got out of jail immediately. And after that, Ivler is nowhere to be found. Until the NBI agents found out that his mother, Marlene Aguilar-Pollard was hiding Jason Ivler on their house in Quezon City. At first Jason exchanged gunshots with the NBI and wounded two of them. Until he received a shot in his intestine. And because Marlene hid him for a long time, she was charged Obstruction of Justice and Ivler is now on jail.

Ivan Padilla being interviewed hours before his death.

        And lately, on the news we heard about the carjacking group led by a 23-year old Ivan Padilla. This group has lots of victims throughout the Metro. They use beautiful girls, collectively known as Ivan's Angels to lure their victims. And their other modus operandi is to snatch a vehicle and use it in another carjack operation. Until their group meet their end when the leader, Ivan Padilla with some of his group members were killed in a shootout in Makati City on August 2. Some say that what happened to Ivan Padilla was overkill. But in my opinion, the Makati City Policemen just did their job whether Ivan initiated the shootout or not. If the Policemen did not shot him maybe one of them will be shot by Ivan's group. I hope that Ivan Padilla's death will serve as an example for young criminals who's still on the loose.

There are many reasons why these young individuals do this kind of things. One of these is their families. Just like Ivan Padilla, his parents were in jail because of drugs. So we can say that he do these things because of depression or there is no guardian that looks after him. Another reason is their childhood, many children today suffer from child abuse from their parents. So when they grow up they seek revenge not only with their parents but also with the people around them. And the last reason that I think the most influential are those violent computer games like Counter Strike, Grand Theft Auto.

Isn't this issue very alarming?

So before it's too late we must teach our children what is wrong and what is right. And if they started doing illegal things we can send them to rehabilitation to put them on the right track.