Rights group to bring ‘child warrior’ case to UN

By TJ Burgonio
Inquirer
Last updated 11:04pm (Mla time) 04/09/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- The human rights group Karapatan is set to file a complaint with the United Nations against the Armed Forces of the Philippines for the killing of a nine-year-old girl during a military operation in Compostela Valley last month and then claiming she was a child-warrior in the communist New People's Army.

"What's sad is that after killing her, the military even portrayed her as a child-warrior,'' Karapatan secretary general Marie Hilao Enriquez said at a press briefing.

"She could barely carry a rifle,'' Enriquez added.

Grecil Buya Galacio was killed during a clash between soldiers and NPA members in the remote village of Kahayag, New Bataan town, in the morning of March 31.

The military identified Galacio as a combatant and said she had been carrying an M-16 rifle.

Communist Party of the Philippines spokesperson Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal, however, scoffed at this and charged the military with covering up a crime.

Enriquez said Karapatan would file a complaint with the UN’s International Convention on the Rights of a Child as well as the local Commission on Human Rights over Galacio’s killing and her portrayal as a young rebel.

She said the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) would also look into the killing.

Galacio had just completed the second grade at Simsimin Elementary School in New Bataan. Her parents, Gregorio and Virginia, were farmers, Karapatan said.

According to reports reaching the human rights group, Galacio and her six-year-old brother, Gary, had gone to the river near their house to bathe. Minutes later, the crackle of gunfire was heard but only Gary made it home safely.

Frightened, the Galacio couple, together with Gary and two other daughters, ran out of their house for a safer place.

Grecil was later found dead a few meters from the house with gunshot wounds in the head and right elbow.

The soldiers had reportedly gone to village chair Eulogio Almasa and showed him a picture of Grecil with an M-16 rifle by her side.

But when Almasa and some neighbors went to the site, they did not see a rifle next to Grecil’s body, Karapatan said, quoting from the reports.

"The rifle was about her size, she could have barely carried it,'' Enriquez said.