Father Shay Cullen

Free the child, change the system

Little has changed in the Philippines prison system since that day several years ago when I found 6-year-old Rosie behind prison bars clutching a drinks can and crying her heart out for her mother.

A dozen or so other street children were sprawled on the hard concrete floor, unconscious with exhaustion and hunger. The toxic fumes they inhaled from a plastic bag filled with industrial glue - taken when local police rounded them up - had knocked out some. The cheap drug was their only remedy for the constant pangs from their empty stomachs.

"That night behind prison bars, I met an abused and abandoned God."

Rosie was too young for that. She had been taken from her mother who earned a living as a street vendor selling peanuts to tourists. The woman was expected to turn over her earnings to get her child released. It was extortion of the cruellest kind.

The Cries of the Oppressed

These were children of God robbed of their dignity and rights. It served as a stark reminder of the words of Jesus of Nazareth when He told us that when we see children, we see Him, and whatever we do to them we do to Him.

"Today, there are an estimated 20,000 children imprisoned in the Philippines."

That night behind prison bars, I met an abused and abandoned God. There, in these children, the God of the oppressed, the persecuted, and the innocent, cried for freedom and love. It is the fate of thousands of children today, a fate Jesus willingly shared to remind us of our dignity, to tell us who we really are.

"Young lives rot in prison as they waste away in this school of crime."

That night, I was filled with anger and frustration as I worked to have those children released from prison and brought to the children’s home I had set up in Olongapo City. Today, there are an estimated 20,000 children imprisoned in the Philippines. The prisons, such as the national penitentiary of Bilibid, south of Manila, are hellholes of abuse and neglect for children, some as young as 9 years.

I know, for I have been jailed myself.

Spectre of Brutalised Child Prisoners

Life for a child in a Philippine prison is like a death sentence.

Each day, untold numbers of Filipino kids get mixed up with adult prisoners in cramped police jails where they are frequently raped, tortured, tattooed, and deprived of access to legal, medical, social, and psychological assistance. This amounts to an institutionalised act of unlawful discrimination by the Philippine government against the children of the poorest of the poor.

"Prisons are hellholes of abuse and neglect for children."

Today, we witness the spectre of these children languishing in prisons practically all over the Philippines, deprived by the state of their basic human rights.

The abuse persists today as young lives rot in prison, wasting away in this school of crime. No wonder the Philippines have one of the highest crime rates in South East Asia.

Filipinos are by and large a people of gentle compassion, kindness, and with a love of justice. I see it everyday in my co-workers who risk much for human rights. But a history of political corruption and dictatorship has left a legacy of unjust laws, empty coffers, and a sea of pitiless political hearts. Our mission is to change as much of that as possible.

"Life for a child in prison is like a death sentence."

In my own life I am almost ashamed to live as I do: secure, well fed and with all the necessities of a decent life. I am even more ashamed when I find myself complaining, thinking I am deprived. In fact we live in opulent luxury compared to the hardships endured by the children in prison or on the streets. Now I understand why Jesus told us to forget ourselves and help others. He was so angry when he saw how the poor were despised and treated as worthless outcasts, while the political and religious leaders were denounced as pious frauds and likened to whitened sepulchres. We can never enter the kingdom of heaven, he said, unless we become as innocent as one of these children. He identified with them. He appealed to us to see him in the poor; in prison, hungry and deprived.

"Raped, tortured and tattooed."

Children around the world are imprisoned. The authorities must answer for this and we must act now to change the system and free the children.

Free the child, change the system

Thousands of children, some as young as nine, see the inside of a Philippine prison in any given year.

They are condemned without due process or respect for their legal and human rights, and subsist on [a few pence] 30 pesos a day.

Many are innocent but are threatened and forced to plead guilty and confess. They are beaten, handcuffed, kicked, and sexually abused in the filthy, overcrowded jails. Worst of all, they are mixed in with adult prisoners, criminals and rapists, and are turned into sex slaves and prostitutes.

"Jail is just a school for criminals."

The children sleep on concrete floors when the jail is not flooded and are forced to eat like animals with their hands off the floors. They have no beds, clothes, or any other personal possessions; are denied education, mental stimulation, games or exercise. They suffer unbearable psychological shock and abuse without hope or relief. Racked with disease, bitten by mosquitoes, cockroaches and ants, the toilet stench is their daily lot in humid filthy dungeons. Food is the same sub-standard left-overs.

In some jails, young girls are brought in from the streets to be sexually abused for a price by the guards and adult male prisoners. In prison, sexual assault of young boys is all too common. Some are turned into child prostitutes while others are physically abused, leaving scars and psychological wounds that last a lifetime. This brutal experience can lead to a cycle of abuse and violence that fills the streets with young juveniles in continual conflict with the law.

Their human growth is stunted, their personality is traumatised, and many are turned into grudge-bearing, disturbed children who evolve into angry, resentful adults. Jail is just a school for criminals.

This is the root cause of crime in the Philippines – the maltreatment and abuse of children. Who is responsible if not the government and the people who allow this injustice to happen unchecked?

Children jailed with adults

Thirty six to fifty-four children – including girls and kids with mental disabilities – are jailed with adult prisoners everyday.

This is based on statistics from the Public Attorney's Office who reported having handled 13,300 cases involving children in conflict with the law (36 kids per day) in 2002. The office of Philippine Senator Francis Pangilinan also expressed concern that 20,000 Filipino kids were jailed (54 kids per day) in 2003.

In 2000 alone there were 10,094 children in conflict with the law supervised by the Philippine Department of Social Welfare and Development. This staggering figure was even less than the recorded number of children who had been imprisoned in 1999 – which leapfrogged to 13,073.

Child prisoners numbered 6,410 in 1998, 8,623 in 1997, and 7,057 in 1996, based on DSWD figures alone. But more cases do not get documented at all.

Girls get imprisoned with adult prisoners. Out of the 10,094 children prisoners served by DSWD in 2000, 703 were girls.

Virtually all these children have been illegally hauled off to police jails and locked up together with adult crime suspects upon their arrest.

They emerge from prison traumatised, scarred for life.

Brazen Illegality

The state practice of jailing children with adult suspects in police jails lacks any basis in Philippine law and violates, with impunity, a host of Philippine laws as well. Article 191 of the Child and Youth Welfare Code (Presidential Decree 603) mandates that a child "from the time of his arrest be committed to the care of the Department of Social Welfare." Section 11 of the Rules and Regulations on the Apprehension, Investigation, Prosecution, and Rehabilitation of Youth Offenders (1995) provides that "a youth… from the time of his arrest be committed to the care of the Department or the local rehabilitation centre or in a detention home distinct and separate from jails."

Unlawful Discrimination

Child prisoners mostly aged 15 to 17 belong to the poorest of the poor. Their dignity and human rights are emasculated by the state because of their powerlessness.

"In prison, sexual assault is all too common."

Statistical findings of the Social Services Development Department (SSDD) of the Quezon City government show that most child prisoners come from families who could hardly support their own sustenance.

In 2002, 189 out of the total 497 children detained at the Molave Youth Home, a detention centre for children run by the SSDD [representing 38 %] came from the P3,000 (US$53.9) monthly income group. The other 101 kids [representing 20 %] and 97 others [comprising 19 %] came from the P4, 000 (US$71.9) and P2, 000 (US$35.95) income bracket, respectively.

They comprise 77 % of the entire 497 children imprisoned at Molave in 2002.

The same pattern could be observed among child prisoners in 2001 who comprise 74 % of the entire 538 jailed children of Molave during the period, with 178 kids coming from the P3,000 ($53.9) income group [representing 33 %], 142 from the P4,000 ($71.9) income bracket [26 %], and 85 others from the P2,000 ($35.95) group [15 %].

The bulk of these prisoners- 305 children [57 %] - were jailed for property-related offences, including 139 for robbery and 120 for theft.

In 2000, at least 121 jailed kids came from the P3,000 ($53.9) income bracket (29 %), 92 others from the P2,000 ($35.95) income group [22 %], and 80 from the P4,000 ($71.9) group (19 %) - comprising 74 % of the children detainees during the period.

The SSDD studies on the children’s economic background also show that, from 1990 to 1999, the bulk of child prisoners came from families belonging to the lowest P2, 000 to P4, 000 ($35.95 to $71.9) income groups, confirming the nexus between poverty and crime incidence allegedly involving the young.

This trend reflects the general condition of child prisoners who are mostly concentrated in urban centres. Their powerlessness makes them vulnerable to state agents' abuse.

The poverty of child prisoners is spurred on by the state’s perpetuation of this crime against humanity.

Faced with no available space to separately detain arrested children (including those suffering from mental disability), law enforcers mindlessly detain children with adult crime suspects, unafraid of any culpability for their commission of this human rights violation due to the poverty and powerlessness of their child victims, and lack of effective grassroots mechanisms providing redress for this inhumanity.

Lacking in a child rights-oriented political leadership, officers and members of the Philippine National Police callously resort to this brutal state practice with impunity, knowing full well that child prisoners who come from the ranks of the poorest of the poor cannot defend and protect their dignity and rights against this onslaught.

Nobody cares. These children, as far as the state is concerned, are non-existent.

This is how such a crime against humanity perpetrated by the state against poor Filipino children gradually became institutionalised over the last 50 years or so.

The economic marginalisation and political powerlessness blighting child prisoners calls for affirmative action by the state in order to address this injustice.

And this affirmative action should be carried out by no less than President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo at the crucial point of contact by these children with agents of the law.

website : www.preda.org
email: preda@info.com.ph

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