A Media Forum: CHILDREN IN THE FRONTLINES?
The issue of Protection vis-à-vis
Participation of Children in the Communities

 

Balay Kalinaw, UP Diliman Campus

 

December 4, 2008

 

 

SALINLAHI held a media forum on the human rights situation of children under the Arroyo administration. The Children’s Rehabilitation Center presented a report on the human rights violations against Filipino children and made recommendations to the UN Special Representative of the Secretary General on the Working Group on Children and Armed conflict who is scheduled to visit on Human Rights Week. An academic critique by educators from UP CONTEND of the UN’s Paris Principles, on which the concept and program for children “recruited and used” by armed forces or armed groups are based, highlighted the event.
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NEWS RELEASE
01 DECEMBER 2008
REFERENCES: ALPHONSE
RIVERA, Spokesperson – SALINLAHI Alliance for Children’s Concerns (Contact # 439-3104)
MA. ESMERALDA MACASPAC, Executive
Director – Children’s Rehabilitation Center (Contact # 913-9244)

CAMPAIGN GIVES NAME, FACE AND VOICE
TO CHILDREN VICTIMS OF GLORIA ARROYO’S WAR OF TERROR

The Salinlahi Alliance for Children’s Concerns launched its
campaign today to highlight human rights violations against children as part of the build up for the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights and the upcoming visit of the United Nations Special
Representative to the Secretary General (UNSRSG) on the Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict, Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy. “We want the general public to know that the Arroyo government has consistently failed to uphold the survival, protection, development and participation rights of Filipino children through its anti-people economic policies and political maneuvers,” declared Alphonse Rivera, Spokesperson of the Salinlahi, an advocacy group for children’s rights and welfare.


The campaign, dubbed Children Under Siege: Children-Victims
of the US-Arroyo Regime’s War of Terror will feature activities that
will highlight human rights violations against children resulting from the
government’s Oplan Bantay II. Through this campaign, cases of children who were killed, wounded, tortured, illegally arrested and detained by the Armed Forces of the Philippines will be highlighted. Special
attention will also be given to children victims of human rights violations who were falsely branded as child soldiers. “Our documentation shows that the Arroyo government, through its military and police, remains the number one violator of children’s human rights. What is worse is that the perpetrators escape accountability by branding their victims as “child soldiers”, thereby further perpetuating the culture of impunity,” added Ma. Esmeralda Macaspac, Executive Director of the CRC, a non-government organization facilitating psycho-social help for children-victims of State violence and a member of the Salinlahi Alliance.
 

CRC documented 66 cases of children killed, 50 children tortured, 55 illegally arrested and detained and 49 who were victims of frustrated killings, since Pres. Gloria Arroyo assumed presidency in 2001. An estimate of more than half a million children were victims of forced displacement since 2001, especially in Mindanao. The organization plans to submit a report to the UNSRSG which cites combined data of CRC and allied human rights organizations when she meets with child-focused NGOs as part of her itinerary.
 

The group also plans to present children-victims of various
types of human rights violations to the UNSRSG, including those who were falsely branded as child soldiers. “The AFP should be made doubly accountable for their irresponsible practice of labeling children victims of human rights violations as “child soldiers” and then parading these children to the media. Despite the passing of the Juvenile
Justice Law that aims to protect children from undue violation of their rights, we see this practice of branding and labeling as “child soldiers”
increasingly being resorted to by the AFP. We cannot discount the trauma and stigma placed on these children victims,” highlighted Rivera of Salinlahi. Also joining Salinlahi and CRC in the campaign are the
Children for Peace Alliance, the Gabriela Women’s Party and GABRIELA. Activities are planned by the groups starting today up to Ms. Coomaraswamy’s departure after Human Rights Day. “We want to maximize every form and every opportunity we can have to give names, faces and voices to children victims of the war of terror that the Arroyo regime is waging against its people,” Rivera ended. ###

 
Prof. Judy Taguiwalo, UP CONTEND
“Critique on Paris Principles”
Rep. Luz Ilagan of the Gabriela Women’s Party, reactor
Atty. Musib M. Buat, reactor
Moro Islamic Liberation Front
Marissa Dumanjug Palo, reactor
NDFP monitoring committee secretariat
           
     
 

Esmeralda Macaspac

Children Rehabilation Center, Executive Director

  
           
           

 

OBL II Burdens Children - NGO report

The Arroyo government is the worst violator of children’s rights, as its counterinsurgency program Oplan Bantay Laya II had put children directly in harm’s way, a non-government organization said in a report.

BY RONALYN V. OLEA
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Bulatlat

The Arroyo government’s counterinsurgency program Oplan Bantay Laya II had put children directly in harm’s way, and violated their basic human rights, said the Children’s Rehabilitation Center (CRC) in a report.

The CRC has been providing psycho-social services to children-victims of state violence, disasters and abuse since the ‘80s.

Esmeralda Macaspac, CRC executive director, cited cases of children-victims mislabeled as “child-warriors”, minors being forced to guard checkpoints, or to act as guides in military operations. These cases were only some of the forms by which children suffer rights abuse under OBL II, Macaspac said.

The CRC report, presented at a media forum on December 4, showed that there were 948 documented cases of children victims of human rights violations.

The report said that from 2001 to 2008, 66 children were killed, 49 were victims of frustrated killing, 50 were tortured, five were raped, four were forcibly disappeared, and 55 were illegally arrested and detained. The NGO also estimated that about two million individuals, including children have been affected by forced displacement due to armed conflict. The CRC noted that from January to October of this year alone, 600,000 were displaced, mostly in Mindanao.

Macaspac said that the rights of children-victims are further violated when they are presented by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) as child soldiers and cases of rebellion are filed against them.

Excuses

Macaspac said the military has three common excuses when violating the rights of children. She said soldiers would say that the children and their families are members of armed groups, that the military operations were legitimate or that the victims are part of ‘collateral damage.’

Particular cases

Macaspac cited the massacre of a Mangyan family in 2003. Killed were Rogelio Blanco, his eight-month pregnant wife Olivia and their children John Kevin, 3, and Dexter, 1.

Macaspac said, “After the massacre, the military said the whole family is with the NPA [New People's Army].”

The NPA is the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

She also cited the case of Grecil Buya, a nine-year old child who was shot and killed by soldiers in Compostela Valley and of Dan-dan Quillano, 12, who, along with his mother Betty, was allegedly killed, burned and mutilated by alleged elements of the military in Surigao del Sur on April 2, 2007. Macaspac said these children were branded as NPA fighters, too.

Macaspac also related the story of Al Jakirani, 17 who was tortured in March 2007. Macaspac said Jakirani was a pedicab driver who was falsely labeled by authorities as Abu Usman of the Abu Sayyaf. Macaspac said the minor’s genitals were electrocuted.

Abu Sayyaf is a bandit group engaged in kidnapping.

Macaspac also talked about the Basilan youth who were arrested in November 2007 for charges of kidnapping and murder. She said they were mistaken as members of the Abu Sayyaf and have been languishing in jail up to now at Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig.

Macaspac said, “Worse, these children are paraded in front of the media like criminals and falsely tagged as child warriors.”

The CRC also documented cases where the military forced children to act as guides in their operations. Macaspac also cited the case of women and children being required to guard checkpoints of the Barangay Defense System in Castilla town, Sorsogon.

“These practices put children in direct risk of harm and is precisely what the international humanitarian law avoids by ensuring that civilians are not caught in the crossfire,” said Macaspac.

“In its more than 20 years of experience in serving children-victims, the CRC has reasons to conclude, by virtue of its documented experiences, that the GRP remains as the main violator of children’s rights, whether or not they are in armed conflict situations,” Macaspac said.

The CRC will submit a copy of its report to the United Nations Special Representative to the Secretary General on for Children and Armed Conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy. The UN representative is in the country to conduct an investigation on the recruitment and use of so-called child soldiers.(Bulatlat.com)
 

PUBLISHED ON December 6, 2008 AT 5:28 PM

www.bulatlat.com

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
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