Plaridel, Bulacan
These are some of the pictures I took yesterday when I went with staff and volunteers of Salinlahi and the Children’s Rehabilitation Center to visit the political refugee camp in St. James’ Parish in Plaridel, Bulacan.
The refugees, some 43 in all, 18 of whom are children ranging from three months old to 16 years old, are from all over Central Luzon. They were forced to leave their homes because of the continuing military operations in the region. Most are fisherfolk and farmers, civilians and supporters of grassroots organizations like Pamalakaya, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, and the progressive party-lists of Bayan Muna, Gabriela and Anakpawis.
When writing or speaking about the total war policy of the Macapagal-Arroyo admnistration (or about the war campaigns of previous governments), it’ hardest to describe the impact and effect on the lives of children. They’re the ones who are hit most by wars, by political repression, by economic deprivations. Their parents at least have some means of fighting back, defending themselves; but children are completely vulnerable. Since 2001, 58 children have been directly killed because of military operations, victims of massacres, or caught in the crossfire.
Those who survive are scarred for life; their young and impressionable minds and hearts forever maimed by the memory of seeing their parent manhandled and beaten up by soldiers; their houses razed to the ground, their mother or father brutalized and killed right in front of them.
The children at the refugee center yesterday looked happy and healthy, the way all children should be in a not-so-insane world; but once you speak them to them about their experiences, their faces cloud over, their eyes drop to the floor and their smiles vanish the way flowers die in sudden droughts.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the government they represent do not in any way consider what will happen to the children of activists they kill, or the children of farmers or workers they massacre. For every activist, or civilian supporter of the progressive party-lists and mass organization, there at least five other victims — the wife or husband, and the children. Families are destroyed, or irreparably damaged.
Everyday I see children begging in the streets, jumping on and off buses and jeeps where they pretend to shine and buff the shoes (and even slippers) of surprised and shocked passengers, or sorting through piles of garbage, looking for food or materials that could be salvaged.
It’s impossible to ignore them, impossible to not be affected by the sight of them. Innocence so early lost; their futures predictable and so hopeless unless by some miracle the ruling system suddenly collapses and all its supporters literally drop dead and hence society can be overhauled and these children, along with parents, can be given a chance to live in dignity and without severe want.
The situation of children of Filipinos terrorized and persecuted or killed by the military is much, much worse. Even before the military came, they were already living in poverty, but at least they had their parents with them and their families were intact. When the devil from hell Jovito Palparan began his reign of terror and began exterminating civilians wrongly accused of being members of the New People’s Army (NPA), these children lost parents, siblings, their homes, their own childhood.
Para makita ang tunay na katangian at oryentasyon ng isang pamahalaan, tignan ang kalagayan ng kabataan at ng iba pang walang muwang at kalaban-laban.
