The Rights of Filipino Children:
Counterrevolutionary violence against children in the countryside

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

Reactionary military troops do not spare, but in fact consider the millions of children, as direct targets of ruthless fascist attacks and abuses.

Many children have fallen victim to indiscriminate killings, bombing, strafing, arson and forced eviction perpetrated by soldiers. Most of them are outrightly terrorized, beaten up and abused to force them into admitting that they are supporters or fighters of the New People�s Army. They are made to witness the brutal murder of their parents. In evacuation centers where victims of forced evacuation are thrown into and neglected, they suffer from hunger, sickness and intense deprivation, with many of them dying. Worse, some children are coerced to serve as guides and/or spies during military operations.

The fascist cruelties they suffer not only cause children physical harm but inflict emotional and psychological damage as well. Sometimes, farmers� children would tremble with fear at the sight of uniformed soldiers and cower and hide upon hearing the drone of a helicopter.

THE FOLLOWING ARE but a few of the cases of direct violations of children�s rights under the pro-imperialist, puppet and fascist US-Estrada regime.

On August 15, Patricia Quirante�s 5-year-old child sustained a bullet wound in the foot when forces of the 303rd Infantry Brigade strafed their home in Guihulngan, Negros Oriental. The shooting was in retaliation for the death of six troopers from their unit in an encounter with the NPA.

On July 30 and 31, five armed soldiers disrupted and harassed a therapy session for children who were victims of violence in the militarized sitios of Carupian, Bunugan, Taguing and Bagunot in Baggao, Cagayan. The soldiers intimidated the facilitator and even snatched a notebook from a young girl. The session was intended to restore the children�s self confidence and help them speak their minds regarding the violence they experienced at the hands of fascist soldiers.

On July 18, in Tungkong Mangga, San Jose del Monte, combined forces of the Securicor Agency and the Philippine Marines shoved 4-year-old Ritchie Dalaquit into a hut that they had set on fire. Ritchie managed to escape but until now bears the trauma resulting not only from what had been done to her but also from having witnessed the murder of her father Benedicto Dalaquit and three other farmers who were members of a peasant association in Tungkong Mangga

On April 23, in Basud, Camarines Norte, a soldier repeatedly banged the already injured head of John-John Benza against a wall. The perpetrators were 1st IB troops led by Lt. Benjamin Pajarito Jr. They maltreated 13-year-old John-John because he witnessed the soldiers� beastly murder of four NPA fighters who had already surrendered. John-John�s head was swollen for many weeks. Worse, the child was traumatized by the violence that he both witnessed and experienced.

Four children lost their homes when their family was violently evicted by forces of the 202nd Infantry Brigade on March 6 in Camalig, Albay.

In Dinarangan, Pinggot, Ilog, Negros Occidental, Rodrigo Asanan Jr., a 14-year-old, was walking with his parents Rodrigo Sr. and Leonida when fired at by soldiers of the 61st IB on March 29.

In Barangay Mahan-ub, Baganga, Davao Oriental, two children, including their father, were shot and killed by troops of the Special Forces Company also this year.

On November 14, 1998, armed men repeatedly shot at 5-year-old Rodolfo Coliano Jr. and his parents at Barangay Kagawasan, San Miguel, Bohol. Rodolfo�s father was slain while his mother was wounded.

Gerry Selenta, 15, his sister Mary, 5, and Heny Cortes, an infant, were victims of indiscriminate firing by combined forces of the 60th IB, SCAA-SF and the Paper Industries Corp. (PICOP) Infantry Battalion on November 8, 1998 in Barangay Pangyan, Trento, Agusan del Sur. The armed rogues strafed the house of the Selentas, wounding the Selenta couple and Gerry who was hit in the stomach. Gerry died after two days due to the seriousness of his wound and because his family could not afford to pay for a much-needed blood transfusion. The little finger on Mary�s right hand had to be amputated. Heny Cortes, son of the Selentas� neighbors, was injured when his mother fell on him while trying to evade gunfire. He died after five days.

Six-year-old Jonalyn Baste, daughter of Nilo Baste, one of the striking workers of PICOP, became another victim of the iron-fisted fascist protectors of PICOP. On May 27, 1998, the strikers� picket line was attacked and dismantled by the 90th PNP Composite team led by Insp. Edgardo Maduro and Officer Empredo Curada.

The fascists did not spare mother and daughter Norma and Jonalyn who were then merely paying Nilo a visit. Jonalyn was among 42 others who were arrested without warrant. The little girl was also among those charged with grave coercion. She was detained for four months, along with her 2-year-old sibling and eight other children like her. In prison, the children were not given separate food rations. They had no choice but to share the measly rations that their parents received.

Two children were hit when soldiers of the 74th IB led by Lt. Jun Picot peppered a house with bullets despite their knowledge that there were farmers and children inside. Perpetrated on October 15, 1998, it was an attempt by the military to liquidate an NPA unit in Sitio Mangga, Barangay Binay, San Narciso, Quezon.

Twelve-year-old Ponciana Dondriano, who was sick at that time, was hit on her right leg with an M16 bullet. An M60 bullet also shattered the knee of Genito Francisco, aged 10. The soldiers sowed even more terror when they set up a detachment in the community immediately after the shooting.

Indiscriminate firing also crippled 2-year-old Cristina Boncalos who was hit by a bullet at the back of her knee on July 3, 1998 at Barangay Oras, Tabaco, Albay. Because her father was a suspected NPA member, forces of the 22nd IB strafed their home. Cristina�s father died instantly, while a bullet that shot through the knee of Cristina�s mother hit the toddler who was then seated on her mother�s lap.

IT IS ALSO THE PRACTICE of the reactionary army to kill minors and later make them appear as NPA fighters.

Many children are abducted, tortured, illegally arrested, imprisoned indefinitely, and treated in a cruel and humiliating manner. The enemy systematically uses them in its propaganda that the NPA allegedly recruits children on a wide scale.

Last August, in San Fernando, Camarines Sur, the AFP killed a 15-year-old boy named Nelson in an encounter between the NPA and the military. Neither has the monstrosity committed by the 54th and 70th IB led by Lt. Raymundo Aguada against four minors in Barangay Dikapanikian, Dingalan, Aurora in June 1998 been forgotten. The soldiers captured the teenagers, including two young girls, and raped the latter before summarily executing the four youths.

On December 2, a 13-year-old boy was captured by soldiers of the 34th IB in Quezon, San Jorge, Samar, and was branded as an NPA fighter. Last May, the AFP arrested a girl nicknamed �Cheche� after encircling a NPA unit in Laac, Compostela Valley and exhibited her as an NPA combatant.

Similarly, many other children like �Brian� of Davao Oriental, �Tony� and �Emer� of Surigao del Norte, �Mariel� of Bohol and another �Cheche� of Surigao who have been captured by the AFP in armed encounters, have been made to appear as NPA combatants and later coerced to serve the reactionary army as spies and guides in military operations or made to undertake other tasks directly related to the military�s campaign against the revolutionary movement. Many of them are terrorized and then conditioned to inform not only on NPA fighters but on the revolutionary masses in their respective barrios. Some are trained to become efficient instruments in the reactionary state�s counterrevolutionary operations.

In February, military troops captured Jelyn Dayong in Alegria, Surigao del Norte in an encounter between soldiers and the NPA. They left her wounded but apprehended her later after villagers brought her to the hospital. She was detained indefinitely as a �youth offender� along with other child criminals in a Department of Social Work and Development office in the guise of protecting her rights as a child. Against her own wishes, she was in fact denied the right to see and be with her family, lawyers and human rights advocates.

In the same way, Mylene Francisco, 14, was captured while ill in November 1998 when a section of the 5th Scout Rangers Company encircled an NPA unit in Kalangatan, San Teodoro, Oriental Mindoro. Contrary to the reactionary state�s claim that it advocates the rights of children, the AFP used Mylene as a guide in their military operations against the revolutionary movement.

Desperate to crush widening and intensifying mass resistance, fascist troops behave like rabid dogs in suppressing the people and attacking revolutionary forces. For the counterrevolutionary Oplan Makabayan, the reactionary and fascist US-Estrada regime is pouring even bigger funds into the AFP, PNP and CAFGU in order to sow more terror in the countryside and the cities. This could only mean the worsening of fascist abuse and violence against children and their parents. But far from driving the masses away from the NPA, fascist intimidation and cruelty can only bolster the people�s solidarity as they rally around a singular revolutionary goal and struggle.

12 November 1999
English Edition

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