Philippine News Digest 32
July 29 - 02 August, 2002
Contents:
SC orders 12 youths out of death row
1M Filipino children working as domestics
Dike in need of repair called “ticking time bomb”
SC
orders 12 youths out of death row
The Supreme Court ordered justice and prison officials to remove
12minors from death row, saying it was against the law to treat youth
offenders as hardened criminals. The high court directed the justice
department to transfer the minors to the medium security compound of the
national Penitentiary in Muntinlupa. The SC pointed out that it had long
recognized that youth offenders should be afforded special treatment in the
judicial system considering their “developmental stage and desired
re-integration into and assumption of a constructive role in society.” Source:
Michael Lim Ubac, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 2 August 2002.
1M
Filipino children working as domestics
An increasing number of children are being employed as domestic
servants in dire conditions across Asia amid rapid modernization and poverty,
a study presented at a forum on child labor in the Philippines showed July 28.
According to the study, these “modern day slaves” work in major cities and
other urban centers in the region. Bangladesh tops the countries with the most
number of child domestic workers with 1.2 million, followed by Indonesia (1.5
million), the Philippines (one million), Sri Lanka (100,000) and Nepal 62,000.
Asia is home to more than 60 percent of working children worldwide. In the
Philippines, a proposed law that would outlaw child domestic work is being
debated and pushed and other countries would do well to follow suit. Source: AFP report in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, 29 July
2002.
Dike
in need of repair called “ticking time bomb”
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