Duterte to meet displaced Marawi children

President Rodrigo Duterte will meet 35 children from strife-torn Marawi City on Tuesday afternoon in Malacañang.

The children, aged 7 to 13, are on a five-day educational tour dubbed as “Tabak Educational Tour: Peaceful Environment for Marawi Children.”

“This is one of the initiatives of the Armed Forces and to ensure that those children displaced by the crisis in Marawi City are given adequate support and psychosocial treatment by the government,” said Brigadier General Rolando Joselito Bautista, commander of the JTF Marawi and the 1st Infantry “Tabak” Division.

The tour, which would be held from August 28 to September 1, “is expected to provide the 35 participants, who live in conflict-affected areas, with educational experience, social and cultural values for peace-building, and exposure to peaceful environments.”

Bautista said “it is imperative that at the initial stage, those deemed vulnerable are being guided and educated to know their roles in the mainstream society.”

“Rather than hold guns and become combatants, we want these children to foster a sense of responsibility and, in the future, become leaders of a peaceful Marawi,” Bautista said.

He said the participants in the tour “were identified as among those vulnerable and susceptible to violent extremism.”

JTF Marawi has tapped the provincial government of Lanao del Sur, Philippine National Police Women and Children Protection Desk, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Teach Peace Build Peace Movement, and Kilos Kabataan Livelihood Foundation, Inc. to make the tour possible. IDL

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