NEWS RELEASE
06 December 2008
Reference: Alphonse Rivera, Spokesperson, 0929-6076157

ON THE INCREASING VIOLATIONS AGAINST CHILDREN’S RIGHTS
GLORIA and HER ANTI-CHILD POLICIES SHOULD BE KNOCKED OUT!!!
 

More than 300 children shouted “i-Knock-out si Gloria!” to the question “Sagot sa Karahasan ni Gloria sa Bata?” This was on the occasion of a gathering of children at Mendiola today, led by the Salinlahi Alliance for Children’s Concerns.

On the eve of the much awaited Pacquiao-dela Hoya Dream Match in the US, children from various urban poor communities joined children-victims of human rights violations in their own spoof of a knock-out match that featured children from various sectors pitted against a caricature of “ the champion human rights violator, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo”. “For 7 long years, our children are continuously being knocked out by various anti-child policies that the Arroyo government has inherited and perpetrated, as well as created and enforced, said Alphonse Rivera, OIC and Spokesperson of Salinlahi.

Dubbed the Nightmare Match, the Salinlahi gathering featured children victims of economic deprivation and political repression in a boxing match with a Gloria Arroyo-look-alike in boxer shorts with huge boxing gloves made from “camouflage” cloth to depict her militaristic OBL2 response to the citizenry’s struggle for social justice. At the end of the program, children representatives of various sectors such as the farmers, workers and urban poor communities, together with adult leaders of people’s organizations all together held on to a “people’s solidarity glove” and gave “Gloria Arroyo” a 1-2 knock out punch.

According to Rivera, President Arroyo’s administration consistently blocks the passage of bills on legislated wage increase and genuine agrarian reform, the removal of the R-VAT in oil and other basic needs. He said that this fosters the further degradation of the working and living conditions of families from the basic sectors – the workers, farmers and the urban poor. As a result, incidences of hunger, malnutrition, drop out from school and child labor among these marginalized children increase. “Thus lies the contradiction in the Arroyo administration’s supposedly primary role as duty bearer in the promotion, protection and fulfillment of the rights of children,” Rivera explained.

Rivera warned that there is a limit to the Filipino families’ patience.“The children and their families cannot and will not allow this situation of oppression and injustice to continue. Time is on their side and they are committed to persevere in various ways consistent with their evolving capacities to see social justice prevail, no matter how long it takes. Sooner or later, the champion human rights violator will be knocked out,” Rivera concluded. ###
 

A CALL FOR JUSTICE FOR CHILD VICTIMS OF ARMED CONFLICT AND MILITARY BRANDING OF CHILD SOLDIERS
 

Privilege Speech of Gabriela Women's Party

Rep. Luzviminda C. Ilagan
9 December 2008

Mr. Speaker, distinguished colleagues, on November 20 the whole world
celebrated the 19th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on
the Rights of the Child, an international convention setting out the
civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of children.
Tomorrow, we will also celebrate the 60th anniversary of the UN
Declaration of Human Rights.

It is in this light that I rise today to bring to the attention of
this House a shameful flow of events that puts to doubt our status as
a signatory to the above-mentioned convention, and for which the
United Nations Special Representative to the Secretary General for
Children and Armed Conflict – Hon. Radhika Coomaraswamy – arrived in
the country just yesterday.

I refer to the increasing violations of the human rights of children,
most especially of those in conflict areas all over the Philippines.

Since the start of President Arroyo's term in 2001 until October 2008,
the Children's Rehabilitation Center has documented more than 900,000
children affected by forced displacement. Many of these children have
experienced the horror of evacuation at least twice in one year in
their young lives.

This year saw the biggest number of children displaced by the state's
military aggression in Central Mindanao: 250,000!

During the National Humanitarian Interfaith Mission joined by this
representation in Lanao del Norte and North Cotabato only this
October, thousands of children and their families who were also
victims of indiscriminate bombing, strafing, torture, destruction of
property and livelihood, divestment of property, harassment, illegal
arrest, detention and extrajudicial killing have endure the dire
conditions in evacuation centers.

Many suffered from undernourishment and eleven have already reportedly died from dehydration. Complained of cough and cold, fever,
infections, skin diseases, toothache and diarrhea, and other diseases
not given medical attention due to lack of doctors and facilities.

 As a result of the military's offensive, many children evacuees have
suffered from trauma – manifested among other things in restlessness
and the disruption of sleeping patterns. Most of them associate the
presence of soldiers with war. Most fear the sight of guns and are
afraid to go back to their homes.

The children have legitimate fears: even those in evacuation centers
fall victims to the military's human rights violations.

Among the victims of the military's atrocities and who fear the
presence of soldiers is 17-year-old Samsudin. He and his family had
been staying in an evacuation center when the military showed up in
the middle of the night and arrested him and his father without a
warrant. They were detained without charge, beaten and starved for
three days.

In September of this year, families including 10 children were
evacuating from Barangay Te, Datu Piang, Maguindanao on board two
boats when a plane indiscriminately fired and hit them. The boats
stopped at the shore and the plane dropped a bomb near the children
killing six of them and wounding four others. A five-month-old
pregnant woman was also killed.

The military claimed the casualties were members of Moro Islamic
Liberation Front. Mr. Speaker, distinguished colleagues, children
whose ages range from two to twelve, a pregnant woman and two adult
males, surely cannot pose as a threat to a battalion of armed military
men.

Labeling civilians as members of rebel groups and children as child
soldiers is apparently a way to escape accountability from these
atrocities.

Tagged as a "child warrior" of the NPA was Grecil Buya, a nine-year
old girl, killed by elements of the 101st Infantry Brigade last March
31, 2007 in Compostela Valley, Mindanao.

Pictures with a high powered rifle laid down beside the body of Grecil
were distributed to the media to "prove" that she was a "child
soldier". The military were forced to retract their statement after a
fact finding mission revealed the actual circumstances of Grecil as a
real victim of the military's counter insurgency campaign. Now, they
claim that she was a victim of a "legitimate encounter" with the NPA.
But Grecil's neighbour proved that there had been no encounter. While
her teachers declared she was an honor pupil in Grade II.

Anthony Labrador, 11 years old, was killed in a Leyte massacre that
included his parents and a cousin. The military unit who conducted the
operations later branded Anthony and his mother as messengers of the NPA.

Al Jakirani, a 17-year-old pedicab driver from Basilan, was illegally
arrested, detained and tortured to force him to admit that he was a
member of the Abu Sayyaf Group.

Edfu was an 11-year old accused of being an New People's Army fighter
and taken into custody by the Armed Forces of the Philippines. The AFP
kept Edfu in a military camp for several days and then paraded him to
the media while he was told to assemble a high-powered rifle.

None of the cases of human rights violations committed by the AFP have
been given justice. When the practice of branding was exposed through
the case of Grecil, instead of deterring them, the violations
intensified through the counter-insurgency campaign of the Arroyo
government: Oplan Bantay Laya.

Mr. Speaker, distinguished colleagues, the Philippines is a signatory
to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and to the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. We even have laws protecting children,
Republic Act 7610 or An Act Providing for Stronger Deterrence and
Special Protection against Child Abuse and Exploitation which contain
provisions that embody the best interests of the Filipino child and
which supports the concept of "children as zones of peace" promoted by
the UN.

Despite the use of what we view as a retrogressive concept of
"children as zones of peace", children in armed conflict are actually
not afforded any protection.

The voices of children, most especially those who come from the ranks
of the toiling masses, remain unheard and their rights are
unrecognized such that they are rendered more vulnerable to
exploitation, abuse, neglect and manipulation, especially outside in
the larger society.

And alarmingly, the state, which should be the number one protector of
children's rights, is actually the number one violator.

Mr. Speaker, distinguished colleagues, it is time that we intervene.
Gabriela Women's Party calls on this House to immediately put a stop
to illegal arrest and detention, torture and killing of children. Let
us put a stop to the military's practice of branding children as
soldiers of rebel groups, which Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita
himself confessed was a way to get back to those accusing the Arroyo
government of extrajudicial killings. Let us put a stop to Oplan
Bantay Laya 2 insurgency campaign which targets innocent children. Let us protect the children in armed conflict and give justice to the
victims of human rights violations of the Arroyo government. Only when
we achieve these goals, can we say that, "a child shall lead us to
peace" and genuine justice and democracy.