US Congress to examine plight of jailed Pinoy street kids

WASHINGTON — About 5,000 children, the majority of them innocent and some as young as eight are currently languishing in jails throughout the Philippines mixed together with hardened criminals and at grave risk of violence and sexual abuse, children’s rights advocate Fr. Shay Cullen said.

An Irish Catholic priest who has worked as a missionary in the Philippines since 1969, Fr. Cullen is in Washington as a key witness at a Congressional hearing to examine the plight of street children around the world and their incarceration in overcrowded jails under deplorable conditions.

On the eve of his testimony he told a press conference on Monday that President Arroyo should declare a moratorium on the arrests and detention of children and appoint a "roving ambassador for children" with the authority to coordinate the efforts of all agencies at national and local levels in addressing problems facing the youth.

He said in his testimony before Congress he will suggest that US aid and assistance to the Philippines be tied to how well the Arroyo administration safeguards human rights and protects children.

Fr. Cullen said US assistance should be given directly to agencies working with the government to help street children.

"The principle should be that aid should not be given where it is going straight to politicians and not directly to projects for children," he said.

Earlier in the day Fr. Cullen and Lord David Alton, co-founder of the international human rights organization Jubilee Campaign and a former member of the British House of Commons, visited the Philippine embassy in Washington and suggested fines be substantially increased against local officials who do not comply with a law requiring them to establish shelters exclusively for child offenders.

Fr. Cullen said it was unfortunate that a Juvenile Justice bill that seeks to prohibit the treatment of child offenders as adult criminals was stalled in the Philippine Senate.

He lauded the Supreme Court for changing some rules that have allowed the release of some 150 children to the custody of his PREDA foundation over the past nine months.

Fr. Cullen is founder of the People’s Recovery Empowerment Development Assistance Foundation, Inc., which has been providing help to street children and rehabilitating and educating them to be productive citizens.

He lamented the absence of adequate social services in the Philippines and said because of this street children were being warehoused in jails regardless of whether or not they have committed a crime.

Children are often apprehended without warrant and frequently jailed without being charged.

"Because kids don’t vote, politicians ignore them. It is up to us to be their voice," he said.

He said he has asked provincial authorities for vacant government buildings at San Nicolas, Castillejos, Zambales to be converted into a children’s home and rehabilitation center but his plea has fallen on deaf ears.

 Fr. Cullen said because of his advocacy work for children he has received so many death threats that he has lost count.

Later in the week Fr. Cullen will brief the Filipino American community at a forum organized by the National Federation of Filipino American Associations, the Philippine American Foundation for Charities and the Philippine American Chamber of Commerce on how they can help protect street children.

A petition to "Save Filipino children in prison" is being circulated on an Internet website www.PetitionOnline.com for presentation to the United Nations and international rights groups in an apparent effort to force the Philippine government into taking action.

The petition calls on the government to protect children, to release them from prison, train and rehabilitate them and reunite them with parents or place them in foster homes.