PREDA's Campaign Against the Shooting of Streetchildren in Davao
City, Philippines
September 8, 1999
Dear supporters of children's rights,
I am appealing to you to support our protest against the murder of street
children in Davao City, the Philippines by motorcycle riding death squads.
Write Mayor Benjamin de Guzman -
City Hall, Davao 8000, Philippines.
If you are unable to write and mail a letter of concern yourself, please print
out the letter of Fr. Shay below and mail it to Mayor Benjamin de Guzman.
You may write : "I support this letter"
It's a small request for a great cause, protecting the abandoned throwaway
children of the streets. Your action can save the lives of many more children.
We must act to protect human dignity, theirs and our own. Please don't let this
pass, act now for the kids.
Or if you cannot mail Fr. Shay's Letter, please send us an e-mail message saying
"I join the protest against the shooting of street children".
Sincerely,
The Preda Child Advocacy Team.
8 September 1999
Hon. Benjamin de Guzman
City Mayor
Davao City
8000 Philippines
Dear Mayor de Guzman,
The cold blooded murder of street children Royroy and Mamay in public on Ilustre
St. near the Galaxy theater in your city on July 6,1999, your approval of
'Secret Marshals' as reported in TODAY, the national newspaper August 8,1999,
page 4 and the eye witness reports of many children and the research of social
workers and the commission on human rights together presents credible evidence
that 'Death Squads' are loose in Davao City murdering and harassing street
children allegedly with the tacit approval of your administration.
During a meeting of social workers and street children with your city
administrator in your office on 19 July this year, the child who is a witness to
the murder of Royroy and Mamay by the men on black motorcycles, clearly
recognized one of the killer gunmen in City Hall.
This shooting and harassment of street children must stop. It is a direct
violation of Philippine law, International law, and The Convention on the Rights
of the Child. As city mayor you will be held responsible before the
International Community for these atrocities against children.
It is for this very reason that in my keynote speech before the World Forum on
Children's Rights this September 5th. I am calling for the establishment of an
International Court of Children's Rights.
Like the officials who allow, order or approve, by act or omission, the
violation of human rights, are brought to trial at the International Court of
Human Rights in the Hague, Netherlands, likewise higher leaders and civil
authorities who cause, allow, or approve, the execution of impoverished street
children by hit squads must be brought to trial.
I am appealing to the International Community and the Presidential Committee for
the Protection of Children, for direct action to stop these murders since you
are unable to do so. I will appeal to the world community of child advocates to
demand the killers to be brought to trial.
They are known and have been identified, it is your duty to bring them to
justice for the murder of the children.Denial and claims of ignorance about
these murders have no credibility.The evidence is clear, children are being
murdered on the streets by an organized squad of motorcycle riding gunmen.
If this is a method of curbing crime in your city ,then it is the most cowardly
and dastardly action heard of. Picking on malnourished,abandoned, vulnerable and
defenseless street children, is the worst of crimes.
Sincerely,
Fr. Shay Cullen, MSSC.
Founder and President
Preda Foundation
