UPDATE (15 Jan 2015, 5pm): Social Welfare secretary Dinky Soliman vehemently denies the incident, saying “photos used in the story were from a previous issue relating to the Manila Reception Action Center. She said the facility is now in the process of being closed.”
“We do not tolerate this practice. We put child abusers in jail,” she told ABS-CBNnews.com. “We are not hiding the children. In fact, more than 400 street children will be singing during the send-off for Pope Francis on Monday. They have been practicing since December. The Pope will see and interact with them,” she added.
Original article text
Have you ever seen this photo of an 11-year old starving child circulating a few weeks ago? Simon Parry, a contributor for Daily Mail Online, claims the child is one of several kids detained at the Manila Reception Action Center. He also investigated and found that “street children as young as five are being caged in brutal detention centres alongside adult criminals in a cynical drive to smarten up the Philippines capital ahead of a visit by Pope Francis this week.”
Protests were staged against the detention centers, but policies have yet to be changed in the local and national governments. | Photo by Red Door News for Daily Mail Online
“In a blatant abuse of the country’s own child protection laws, the terrified children are locked up in filthy detention centres where they sleep on concrete floors and where many of them are beaten or abused by older inmates and adult prisoners and, in some cases, starved and chained to pillars,” wrote Parry.
The Philippines’ juvenile justice law, amended by President Benigno Aquino III in 2013, protects children aged 15 and below from being treated like ordinary criminals. Instead, they undergo an intervention program by the government through the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s Bureau of Child and Youth Welfare. The new law also endorses the creation of regional Juvenile Justice and Welfare Councils to ensure effective implementation of the law in the local level.
The children were not jailed, they were caged, as MailOnline’s investigation found.
Is this Reception Action Center in Manila the kind of intervention local governments provide? “These kids are totally without protection. They have no legal representation. They are just put in jail and left to fend for themselves,” says Father Shay Cullen, a 71-year-old Irish missionary who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times for his humanitarian work for the Preda Foundation. Father Shay negotiates for some of the children to be released, including 7-year-old Mak-Mak.
Father Shay Cullen of Preda Foundation helps release street children from the inhumane conditions of the detention centers. | Photo by Red Door News for Daily Mail Online
And really, we don’t need to look all clean and dandy around the Pope. If anything, he’s been very compassionate toward children and the poor.
Legislators are making various suggestions to solve juvenile delinquency, from lowering the age of criminal liability to 13 to punishing negligent parents. What do you think is the best way to improve the situation of children in conflict with the law (CICL)?