The Supreme Court ordered justice and prison officials...

The Supreme Court ordered justice and prison officials to remove 12 minors from Death Row, saying it was against the law to treat youth offenders as hardened criminals.
Saying Death Row was no place for youth offenders, the high court issued a full court resolution ordering officials of the National Bilibid Prisons (NBP), through the justice department, to immediately remove the minors from Death Row.
"Detaining an accused, who is a minor, in the Death Row which can break even a hardened criminal, while he awaits his fate, negates the very essence of the protection afforded by the state on the youth," said the tribunal in a four-page resolution.
The high court directed the justice department to transfer the youth offenders, whose cases are being reviewed by the SC, from the Death Row to the medium security compound of the NBP in Muntinlupa.
The SC issued the order based on a Nov. 6, 2001 letter of Ma. Victoria Diaz, program development officer of the Philippine Jesuit Prison Office (PJPS), who informed the high court of the fate of the 12 youth convicts.
The official of the PJPS, a Catholic Church-run prison welfare center, claimed that the convicts were below 18 years old at the time they allegedly committed their respective offenses.She said that all were convicted of capital offenses and meted the maximum penalty of death by trial courts.
The SC pointed out that it had long recognized that youth offenders should be afforded special treatment in the judicial system considering their "developmental age and desired reintegration into and assumption of a constructive role in society."