Twelve minors are still languishing on death row in...

Twelve minors are still languishing on death row in the Philippines despite a Supreme Court resolution ordering their transfer to the medium security compound of the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) in Muntinlupa.
Ricardo Macala, director of the Bureau of Corrections, said NBP officials are ready for the transfer but they have not received a copy of the Supreme Court order.
"How can we act if we haven't received the order from the office of the court administrator?" Macala asked in a telephone interview.
On August 1, the Supreme Court ordered justice and prison officials to move the young offenders from death row, saying they should not be treated as hardened criminals. The high court is still reviewing the cases of the young offenders who supposedly committed their crimes when they were still minors.
Like other inmates in death row, the 12 youth offenders are prohibited from leaving their cells and are not allowed to receive visitors aside from members of their immediate families, according to Macala.
Once the young prisoners are transferred to the medium security compound, they will be allowed to join educational and recreational activities in jail, he said. They will also be allowed "free movement" inside the compound from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, Macala added.
At the Senate, committee on justice and human rights chair Sen. Francis Pangilinan asked the Supreme Court administrator to expedite the transfer of the 12 minors.
"I cannot understand what this dilly-dallying is all about," Pangilinan said in a statement.He stressed that "the longer these minors stay in death row, the dimmer their chances for rehabilitation gets."
He said that as a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Philippines is "duty bound to protect and uphold the interests of children and ensure their continued development."
Pangilinan said he filed a bill seeking the creation of a juvenile justice system that would prevent the sending of minors to death row along with hardened criminals.