By Mai Gevera
About 200 kids in Barangay Caliclic, Island Garden City of Samal had their urine screened for free as the Renal Disease Control Program (REDCOP) reached the said barangay in their information dissemination and urine screening project.
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MANILA — Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr.
(PDP-Laban) today urged the Armed Forces of the
Philippines to conduct a no-nonsense investigation
into the ?accidental? killing of a nine-year old
village girl during an encounter between government
troops and communist guerillas in Compostela Valley
and to identify the soldiers responsible for the
tragedy.
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DAVAO CITY — ?Exactly one month after the death of 9-year old Grecil Buya Galacio, an independent investigation has yet to commence,? lamented Alphonse Rivera, Spokesperson of SALINLAHI Alliance for Children?s Concerns. Grecil was killed by members of the 28th and 67th IB in New Bataan, Compostella Valley last March 31, 2007. She was initially branded as a ?child soldier? by the military which was later forced to retract their statement after the family and Salinlahi presented evidences proving otherwise.
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DAVAO CITY — KABIBA Alliance of Children?s Concerns in Mindanao, a coalition of 51 child-focused and child-friendly groups, commended today Sen. Pia Cayetano for supporting the clamor on the conduct of an impartial autopsy on the remains of Grecil Buya whom the military misrepresented as NPA ?child combatant?
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Poster Child. Gregorio Galacio, the father of Grecil Buya, the nine-year-old New Bataan girl accused by the military of being a child combatant, talks to the press in Manila, where he and his wife Virginia Buya, right, earlier filed complaints against the soldiers who killed Grecil during a firefight with guerrillas on March 31. International human rights groups, including one from Japan, have denounced her death, calling it an atrocity that is connected to the Arroyo regime’s war on terror that have allegedly victimized civilians. (Photos courtesy of arkibongbayan.org)