Liberation Movements

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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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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