Children not spared by military operations vs rebels, rights group says

MANILA, Philippines—Child welfare advocates voiced alarm Saturday over the growing number of children who are killed or suffer in various other ways in operations by security forces against insurgents, and urged the Aquino administration to take measures to stop the alleged atrocities especially in rural communities.

Jacquiline Ruiz, head of the Children’s Rehabilitation Center, said at a press briefing that this year alone,  four children were killed in separate military actions in Laguna and Camarines Norte.

“The Aquino government’s ongoing Oplan Bayanihan as backdrop of the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ operations continues to wreak havoc in rural communities. Sadly, even children’s lives and welfare are not spared from these atrocities,” she said.

The Children’s Rehabilitation Center is a non-governmental organization extending pyscho-social help to children who are victims of state violence in the Philippines. The group was formed on June 29, 1985 as a result of the masteral thesis of Elizabeth Protacio-Marcelino at University of the Philippines in Diliman which dealt with the stress and coping mechanism of children of political detainees.

The CRC said has recorded five cases of killings, 17 frustrated killings, two rapes, 10 attacks on schools and eight cases of children being branded as child soldiers since President Benigno Aquino took office in 2010.

One of the latest incidents was the February  25 shooting of two children and their father in Labo, Camarines Norte, when soldiers allegedly fired at the house of the Mancera family where a rebel was resting.

A few days earlier on February 16, a 15-year-old boy and his adult companion were shot after being tagged as rebels, but their relatives said the victims were just hunting for bats and frogs to sell for a living.

Ruiz stressed that children in communities where the AFP conducts its operations suffer intense emotional trauma, social withdrawal and are uprooted from their lives and routines.

The child rights advocate also cited instances when military units allegedly occupied day care centers in Northern Samar and Ormoc City, prompting young children not to go to school.

The mother of the two Mancera children killed on February 25 made a short but angry appeal at the press conference for the military to stop the violence.

“Please make those soldiers stop so they won’t be able to do such crimes to us,” said Lourdes Mancera.

For her part, Christine Guevarra of Hustisya, a rights group against extra-judicial killings, said: “It should be children playing with PSP (portable PlayStation), not the President.”

The “noynoying” fad appeared  to have caught on with other militant groups as the child welfare advocates at Saturday’s press conference had a man, dressed a yellow shirt and a headgear which resembled the President, lounging on a table with nothing to do.

The “noynoying” pose, which is a play on the President’s nickname,  first caught fire on Thursday as militant students, in a bid to go around the anti-planking threat of the authorities, mimicked what they called the “do-nothing” attitude of President Aquino on issues like oil price hikes and tuition increases.