A Call for Justice for Children Victims of Armed Conflict and Military Branding of Child Soldiers

Privilege Speech of Gabriela Women's Party Rep. Luzviminda C. Ilagan on 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.