NGO claims violations of children’s rights escalated after ‘all-out war’ vs NPA declared

From the Business Mirror (Feb 20): NGO claims violations of children’s rights escalated after ‘all-out war’ vs NPA declared

THE Children’s Rehabilitation Center (CRC) said an upsurge in violations of children’s rights has followed the declaration by the military of an all-out war campaign against the New People’s Army (NPA).

CRC, which had been counseling children traumatized by military operations for years, challenged President Duterte to order his troops to leave the children alone and stop making their schools and day-care centers as their bivouac areas.

Cristina Palabay, secretary-general of the human-rights watchdog Karapatan, also urged the Duterte government to respect the provisions of the International Covenant of Children’s Rights (ICCR), which bans the recruitment of child soldiers and the use of educational institutions as staging areas for military operations.

NPA Spokesman Jorge Ka Oris Madlos said “the NPA stands by its prohibition on the use of children as combatants, and this has been spelled out in the documents released by the National Democratic Front of the Philippines [NDF].” 

“Even while the peace negotiation between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the NDF is ongoing, we have been witness to the continuing human-rights violations by the Armed Forces of the Philippines [AFP]. Especially after Duterte’s declaration of an all-out war, the military has continued, and even gained more confidence, in violating human rights of progressives, activists and even civilians,” CRC executive director Sr. Jacqueline Ruiz said.

Ruiz said children in the countryside continue to live under siege as elements of the AFP target civilians.

Palabay earlier condemned the killing of 17-year-old Jobert Bito, a Grade 11 student, who was gunned down in a mining tunnel in Tagmamarkay, Agusan del Norte, on February 11, by soldiers of the 17th Infantry Battalion who claimed that NPA guerrillas were holed up in the tunnel being worked on by small miners.

Miner Pepito Tiambong, 40, was killed along with Bito, with the soldiers claiming they died in a clash with the NPA.

“We are very much alarmed that children continue to carry the heaviest brunt of military abuses in the countryside. Between February 10 and February 11, elements of the AFP have committed cases of extrajudicial killing of a Grade 11 student, military attacks on schools and indiscriminate aerial bombings resulting to forcible evacuations of indigenous communities,” Ruiz said.

In Magallanes, Sorsogon, soldiers also used the Tula-Tula Elementary School as a shield during a clash with the NPA on February 10, forcing school officials to suspend classes.

On February 11 about 100 families of the Tagakaolo minority group in Barangay Datal Anggas, Alabel, Saranggani, forcibly evacuated their homes and fled to Sitio Kindag when six bombs were dropped on Sitio Tangis, following an encounter between NPA guerrillas and soldiers.

Three Lumad community schools, operated by the Center for Lumad Advocacy and Services Inc., were also affected by ongoing combat operations.

Ruiz lamented the Duterte government’s all-out war “is leaving hundreds of children as orphans, with many of them separated them from their parents, who were either arrested and detained and slapped with trumped-up charges or disappeared altogether.”

“Where is the change Duterte promised to millions of people who have supported and voted for him? Children of peasants and indigenous peoples continue to experience state violence on a daily basis. Indeed, the future remains bleak for Filipino children, whom we consider as our nation’s hope!” Ruiz said.

“An all-out war will never be a solution to address the armed conflict. With this escalating state violence, President Duterte’s commitment to achieving peace is being tested and challenged. Duterte should abandon the all-out war campaign and listen to the growing clamor for the continuity of the peace talks in order to address the root cause of the armed conflict,’ Ruiz said.

http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/ngo-claims-violations-of-childrens-rights-escalated-after-all-out-war-vs-npa-declared/