Youth & Children

Philippines: Bird Flu Is a Children?s Concern, Says Unicef

DAVAO CITY — Bird Flu is a children?s concern, which has prompted the United Nations Children?s Fund to join the information drive to keep the Philippines free from the pandemic and save the Filipino children.

Nilo Yacat, an information officer from UNICEF Philippines in a seminar workshop with Philippine Information Agency (PIA) information officers, bared the extent of harm that the Avian Influenza (AI) had done to children population.

He said one-half of the reported cases and one-third of the reported deaths worldwide due to AI, were children.

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Philippines: Interfaith Mission Slams AFP Over Grecil’s Death

National Interfaith Psychosocial First-Aid Mission
Brgy. Kahayag, New Battan, Compostela Valley Province
April 14, 2007

MISSION STATEMENT

April 16, 2007

Knowing that,

The 1001st Infantry Brigade under 10th Infantry Division of the Armed Forces of the Philippines has hastily charged the victim of its cold blooded killing, Grecil S. Buya, as a child soldier of the New People?s Army last March 31, 2007;

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Philippines: ‘Child Soldiers’ Label Used by Military to Escape Accountability

Salinlahi Foundation, Inc.
Alliance for Children?s Concern
PO Box 1580-1155
QCCPO 1100 Q.C.
Philippines

PRESS STATEMENT

April 16, 2007

Reference: Renato Macaspac, Advocacy Officer, 0928 247-3737

SALINLAHI Foundation for Children?s Concern

?Child Soldiers? Label used by the Military to Escape Accountability over Cases of Children Victims of Human Rights Violations?

Obedient, playful and fun-loving. These are characteristics typical of rural children like Grecil Buya Galacio, 9 years old. She had cherished the start of the summer vacation because this meant days of helping her mother in her house chores, playing with her younger siblings, and swimming in the nearby creek. But on that fateful day of March 31, 2007, Grecil?s childhood had ended. Members of the 28th and 67th Infantry Brigade based in Compostella Valley had shot Grecil during an encounter with members of the New People?s Army in Purok 6, Barangay Kahayag, New Bataan. With no remorse, the military immediately branded Grecil as a ?child soldier? of the NPA as if labeling their victim as such could exenorate them from the accountability of such a gruesome act.

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Philippines: Militarization Means Death and Trauma to Children

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Children?s Rehabilitation Center

Southern Mindanao Region Office

Press Statement

April 16, 2007

Militarization means death and trauma to children

?Pagkakita nako sa patay?ng lawas ni Grecil nga gisakay sa kangga, nakulbaan ko ug nahadlok kay nahuna-hunaan nako nga kung sa ako ?to nahitabo.?, (when I saw the dead body of Grecil laid on the ?balsa?, I was nervous, afraid and thinking what if it was me who was killed).

This statement was tearfully narrated by a girl during a psycho-social therapy session in a National Interfaith Psycho-social First Aid Mission (NIPFAM) at Simsimen, Brgy. Kahayag, New Bataan last April 14. Participating in the activity were 34 children whose ages ranging from 4-14 years old from Purok 2, 5, 6, and 7.

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Was ComVal Girl a Guerrilla? AFP Now Unsure

DAVAO CITY — The military on Friday appeared to have changed its position that Grecil Buya was a child combatant of the communist New People’s Army. Grecil was the nine-year-old girl from Compostela Valley who was killed during an encounter between communist rebels and soldiers on March 31 and whom the military earlier tagged as a member of the New People’s Army.

Instead, the military, which earlier said that soldiers were forced to shoot and kill Grecil because she allegedly had a firearm, now says it was not even sure whether the soldiers or the rebels shot the girl.

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