Here’s a statistic people should pay more attention to: President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs has claimed the lives of more than a hundred children.
A report published by the World Organisation Against Torture (Organisation Mondiale Contre la Torture; OMCT) and the Children’s Legal Rights and Development Center (CLRDC) shows that out of the 27,000 people killed between July 2016 and December 2019, at least 122 were children aged one to 17 years old.
The report titled “How could they do this to my child?” showed that the majority of the killings were carried out by police forces or their affiliates. Reasons for killings include direct targeting of victims, mistaken identity and children as proxies when the real targets could not be found.
Children who are killed are often deemed collateral damage, as is the case with five-year-old Danica Mae Garcia and three-year-old Myka Ulpina. The report also notes that witnesses are also killed, citing a case when a seven-year-old boy was killed after witnessing local authorities murder an adult.
Ultimately, the OMCT and CLRDC said that the actual number of children killed may be higher than the number indicated in the report due to families fearing retaliation should they file a case for the deaths of their children. Families and witnesses interviewed for the report also asked for anonymity for the same reason.
As of writing, only one case involving the police resulted to a conviction. The three officers involved in the killing of Kian Delos Santos were found guilty of murder by the Caloocan City Regional Trial Court, a year after the killing. They were sentenced to life in prison without eligibility of parole and directed to pay the Delos Santos family for damages.
“These revelations must be a wake-up call for the international community, who has been largely absent as the Philippine government has kept trampling human rights,” said OMCT secretary general Gerald Staberock in a press release. “It is the total lack of accountability that feeds the cycle of violence, including the war on children we are witnessing.”
Header photo by Philip Jamilla for SCOUT Magazine
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