Filipino children in prison, an appeal to the US Congress
(republishing, copying, no restrictions)
By: Father Shay Cullen
The situation of children in jail is not greatly improving as the Philippine government has restricted our visits to the children's cells to monitor the conditions and to see that adults are not allowed inside with them. The President has also banned any media reporting on the situation. This is a deplorable cover up of the violation of the rights of the children and in effect will allow the abuse to go on with impunity as pedophiles and rapists and hardened criminals are in those jails. There are dungeons of fear and filled with frightened children. The Jubilee Campaign headed by the charismatic founder and director Danny Smith has been working with Preda to change this situation bring new legislation to protect the children and to support them in recovery and schooling at the Preda home for abused and traumatized children.
Jubilee has arranged for me to address the US Congress twice and to get their help and support. Five congressmen and two senators have written to the president of the Philippines to persuade her to change the situation and give Preda a disused building in Castillejos, Zambales for a new home for these victims of inhumanity and brutality.
I testified a second time at the US Congress and here are excerpts from my address to them.
Dear honorable members of Congress,
Since I last testified before the Congressional Sub-committee on International Relations on 13th of September this year I returned to the Philippines to continue the work visiting the prisons and jails and working to have as many children and minors released as possible. The state itself admits as many as 3,700 children are incarcerated at any given time, but in reality over a period of one year or so, an estimated 20,000 children can see the inside of a jail for weeks or months before being released. Many are not even legally charged and few are actually convicted of any crime. They are in fact accused and imprisoned in the most dangerous conditions as innocent and blameless children.
I am from Ireland and a missionary in the Philippines for 35 years. I bring to your attention the condition of children in prison in the Philippines. I founded the Preda Foundation in 1974. It is based in Olongapo and with 54 dedicated Filipino professionals and in coordination with committed organizations like Jubilee Campaign works to counter the trafficking of children, human rights violations and visits and rescues children from prisons all over Metro Manila. There are now more than 100 children rescued by Preda social workers from the terrible conditions of the prison cells which inflict physical and psychological abuse on the kids some are only ten years old. This has been made easier, thanks to the compassionate action of the Supreme Court that responded to a request to ease the rules of court and permit diversion and custody of children in conflict with the law be given to accredited child caring organizations such as the Preda Foundation (People's Recovery Empowerment and Development Assistance).
Fifty-seven of these children and youth aged 12 to 17 are residing at the Preda Home and they have disclosed to us the extent of the suffering, abuse and treatment that in some cases amounts to torture. They are the most convincing witnesses of their own sufferings. Even after my last testimony we are now banned from visiting the children in their cells.
The gross systematic and daily violations of these inviolable and sacred rights are nothing new. In the past years we at Preda have documented these violations and when ignored by Philippine authorities we brought the evidence before the United Nations Committee on Human Rights in Geneva, October 2003. The Philippine government panel, present at the hearings, was asked to explain but failed to do as adequately as the conditions of children in prison were unknown to them. We resorted to the media to inform them.
We have appealed to the Philippine authorities for the children to be separated from the criminals and pedophiles but little has been accomplished. Small steps are noted. The minors in the Navotas prison cell were transferred to a rehabilitation center south of Manila and the Philippine Senate has brought the Comprehensive Juvenile Justice Bill forward as a result of publicity. We hope there will be a new-found commitment to human rights and care of the poor and the downtrodden especially poor youth, the weakest and most vulnerable of all. [to be continued]
