PREDA's offer to extend services to the children refused
23 March 2004
Hon. Undersecretary Lourdes Balanon
Department of Social Welfare and Development
Constitution Hills, Batasan Complex
Diliman, Quezon City
Dear Hon. Usec. Lourdes Balanon,
Despite daily phone calls and message to Director Thelsa Biolena of the DSWD Field Office IV since March 16 Tuesday, we have yet to receive a response that would allow us to interview the children in a child-friendly manner and to coordinate additional help and assistance to the more than 25 children reportedly victims of sexual abuse in Puerto Galera. Only three children are in protective custody at this time. Our services have been refused.
I am enclosing a copy of the affidavit of the children presently housed at the Bahay Tuluyan Center in Dasmarinas, Cavite showing the outrageous extent of the sexual abuse whereby children as young as eight and nine years old have been trafficked from other provinces and trained to perform oral sex on foreign customers beside other sexual acts. The DSWD is mandated by the Anti-trafficking in Persons Act of 2003 section 16, article [b] to "implement rehabilitative and protective programs, counseling and temporary shelter for trafficked persons and to develop a system for accreditation among NGOs for purposes of establishing centers and programs for intervention in various levels of the community."
My contacts in Puerto Galera informed me that a five-year old child has also been sexually abused. We believe that this paedophile ring is just the tip of a huge ice berg and there is cover up, obstruction of justice, and destruction of evidence. I must inform you of these things.
This is our last appeal to Philippine authorities to save those children and prosecute the foreign sex tourists who abused them. We are taking our appeal to the United Nations Human Rights Committee and other concerned international bodies.
Yours sincerely,
Fr. Shay Cullen, mssc
President and Executive Director
cc: Secretary Corazon Juliano Soliman