A child rights advocacy group said the military is violating the Constitution and trampling on the rights of a 14-year old boy it has presented to media as a “captured child warrior” of the New People’s Army.
Lindy Tremilla, Southern Mindanao head of the Children’s Rehabilitation Center, said by presenting the minor to media and even in their social media accounts, the 10th Infantry Division and Eastern Mindanao Command “paraded a hapless boy to the public who could not defend himself.”
“They have violated his rights as (stated) in Article III Section 14 of the Constitution that ‘No person shall be held to answer for a criminal offense without due process of law’,” she pointed out.
The military claimed the boy was wounded and captured by soldiers during a series of clashes with rebels in Pantukan town, Compostela Valley province on February 9.
However, human rights groups have disputed this, saying the child was hurt and a small-scale miner, Ronel Paas, killed when the military “fired indiscriminately” on their community of Sitio Diat, Post, 4, Barangay Napnapan.
Trenilla backed up this account, saying members of the boy’s community could attest that he is not a rebel but works for small-scale mining operations there. She also cited a local news report quoting the boy’s grandmother as saying he was panning for gold when he was wounded.
The CRC officer called on the Department of Social Welfare and Development to immediately take custody of the boy, who she said was being held “under duress” by the military at the Southern Philippines Medical Center in Davao City, where he is recuperating from his injuries, and provide him not only with medical but also psycho-social care.
She stressed that the military’s keeping the boy in custody violates the Special Protection for Children Act which provides that a child in conflict with the law “shall be immediately placed under the protective custody of the Department of Social Welfare and Development immediately but not later than 24 hours after apprehension…”
“We will check on this with the DSWD, and hope that the boy is taken care of,” Trenilla said, noting that the CRC has documented 32 cases of children falsely tagged “child soldiers”, among them nine-year old Grecil Buya, who was killed in New Bataan, Compostela Valley in 2007 during a clash between the 28th Infantry Battalion and the New People’s Army and whose picture the military later showed with an M16 planted beside her body.
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/124236/military-violating-constitution-by-parading-child-warrior---group
The Children’s Rehabilitation Center (CRC) is a suspected Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) front organization. Statements made by CRC officials should be evaluated accordingly.
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