How to Help Stop the Jail Abuse of Children
Published in The Universe
(October 20, 2002)
Little has changed in the Philippines prison system since that day several years ago when I found a little six year old, named Rosy, behind prison bars clutching a drink can and crying her heart out for her mother. A dozen or so other street children were sprawling on the hard concrete floor, unconscious with exhaustion and hunger.
The toxic fumes they inhaled from a plastic bag of industrial glue taken from them when the local police rounded them up, knocked out some. The cheap drug was their only remedy for the constant pangs of an empty stomach. Rosy was too young for that. She had been taken from her mother who was a street vendor selling peanuts to the tourists. She was expected to turn over her earnings to get her child released. It was a case of extortion of the cruelest kind.
These were the children of God robbed of their dignity and rights and a stark reminder of the words of Jesus Christ when he told us that when we see them we see him and whatever we do to them we do to Him. That night behind prison bars I met God abused and abandoned. There in them, the God of the oppressed, the persecuted, and the innocent, cried for freedom and love. It is the fate of thousands of children today, a fate Jesus willingly shared to remind us of our dignity, to tell us who we really are.
I was filled with anger and frustration as I worked to have those children released and brought to the children's home I had set up in Olongapo City. Today there are an estimated 20,000 children imprisoned in the Philippines. The prisons I know, having been jailed myself, such as the national penitentiary of Bilibid south of the capital Manila, are hellholes of abuse and neglect for children as young as 9.
In some city jails the young girls are brought in from the streets to be sexually abused by the guards and the adult male prisoners for a price. In prison sexual assault on young boys is all too common. Some are turned into child prostitutes others are physically abused - leaving scars and psychological wounds on them all. It is a brutal experience that can lead to a cycle of abuse and violence that fills the streets with young juveniles in constant conflict with the law.
We are doing all we can save these children. Readers can help too. Part of the work is organizing jail visits and investigating the case of imprisoned children with our Jail rescue team. This is made up of a social worker and para-legal officer of PREDA Children Home and two volunteer lawyers from Dublin, James Nunan and Darach McNamara. We find that many of the minor's rights have been violated and their detention is illegal. Some suffered abuse. Like the eight and twelve year olds brought to the cemetery by the police and threatened with execution, then tortured with cigarettes until they confess to some crime for which the police want a conviction and to get a reward and promotion.
Other young teenagers are jailed without any evidence; they can be detained for weeks before seeing a prosecutor, lawyer or magistrate. We have made protests to the UN working committee on arbitrary detention in Geneva. They responded and brought the case to the attention of the Philippine authorities. They reported back to the UN committee but their information was incorrect which we had to correct with the true documentary evidence. Several children have been released as a result but we are finding many more behind bars. Amnesty International joined the Awareness raising and put the PREDA reports on their web site.
It is not all doom and gloom for the children of the Philippines and elsewhere if we work together to help them. Readers are a great support when they write a letter encouraging the Philippine senators to work with us at PREDA Centre in Olongapo and finalize the proposed draft of the Juvenile Justice Bill that will help prevent the abuse of minors and their torture and illegal arrest.
Readers
can help by writing to Senator Francis PANGILINAN, chairperson
Committee on Justice and Human Rights. Philippine Senate, Rosa Blvd. Pasay
City, Metro Manila, Philippines.
