Estrada adviser acts on child pusher problem

The number of children selling drugs can be reduced if they are taken off the streets through the joint efforts of the government and the private sector.

Jamby Madrigal, presidential adviser on children’s affairs, told The STAR yesterday six out of 10 streetchildren rescued by her office were found to be addicted to a kind of glue known as "rugby."

Madrigal said studies show most streetchildren come from dysfunctional families where parents physically and sexually abuse them.

"There are even drug-using parents who drive their children into selling drugs so that they get their earnings out of it to satisfy their own drug addiction," she said.

Madrigal said her office came aross the case of an eight-year-old boy who was addicted to rugby two years ago, and that he was a "hardcore" user.

Madrigal said the boy went back to the streets and became an addict again after she and her staff members had taken him off the streets for the second time.

Madrigal said the third time the boy was rescued, her office turned him over to the Bagong Buhay rehabilitation center of Police Director Jewel Canson, who heads the government-private sector project Mamamayan Ayaw sa Droga (MAD).

"The boy is now 10 years old," she said. "He has been successfully rehabilitated and now leads a normal life with his family."

Madrigal said streetchildren become drug pushers and addicts after drug syndicates introduced them to the habit.

"But the problem of streetchildren is not endemic in the Philippines but it’s a worldwide problem," she said. "The use of streetchildren as drug pushers is also prevalent in New York and other countries where they are used as "mules" by these syndicates."

Madrigal said citizens should be informed that giving alms to streetchildren is not helping the government’s effort to get them off the streets.

"The small sums of money given as alms to streetchildren become their money to buy drugs," she said. "So we are asking our people not to give money to them but report to authorities where the streetchildren are."

Madrigal said her office is working in close coordination with non-government organizations like the Citizens’ Drugwatch Foundation to promote government-private sector cooperation in fighting drugs.

Susan Ople, Drugwatch executive director, said over the weekend the number of children selling drugs may increase because drugs syndicates are preying on streetchildren.

"This report is not new to us," she said. "There are really syndicates using street children for their drug pushing trade. To address this problem, we must cut the source of supply (of pushers) being used by these syndicates which are the streetchildren."

Madrigal said Fr. Sonny Ramirez also runs a center for streetchildren, where their parents are educated against the "evils" of begging as a source of income.

Madrigal said Tuloy sa Don Bosco, which is operated by Fr. Rocky Evangelista, is a rehabilitation center for drug addicts and sexually- abused children.