BY FR. SHAY CULLEN
ELEVEN-year-old Evangeline is one of several children rescued from child sex abusers that abused them over the internet for money from rich foreigner pedophiles. The demand is huge. The other child victims are boys and girls- six, eight, and 10 years old. They were repeatedly sexually abused in front of an internet-connected cellphone using the Philippine Internet service providers (ISPs) while the foreign pedophiles around the world paid and watched the horrific shows. A recent study conducted in 2021 by Unicef, Interpol, and Ecpat International, all great advocates of child rights, discovered that among Filipino children between the ages of 12 years and 17, one in every five suffered sexual abuse over the Internet, especially during the lockdowns. That is an estimated two million abused Filipino children in total.
The live sex shows were streamed over the Internet. Other acts were recorded on video and uploaded and sent to pedophiles through the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) likely operated by either PLDT, Globe, or Dito. While the law RA 9775 of 2009 demands that the mega-rich telecommunication corporations install blocking software to detect, block and report the child sexual abuse images, they have chosen not to obey the law and arrange privately with the National Telecommunications Commission to pay a small fine. Please correct me if this is incorrect. They also facilitate Facebook and Messenger where child sex abuse is rampant.
Evangeline and the rescued children of online sexual abuse were eventually referred to the Preda Foundation’s therapeutic homes for abused children. The children soon felt safe, protected, and trusted and soon disclosed to social workers the horrific acts of sexual abuse done to them. They are healing and recovering, joining the games, dancing, singing, story-telling, and therapy sessions. They will soon study again.
The greatest injustice to the child victims is when the parent or authority who knows of the abuse does nothing to help and report abuse. There is injustice when the police don’t investigate when the prosecutor takes bribes to dismiss a child rape case when a judge allows delays, postponements, and sides with the abusers failing to protect the rights of the child victim. The children never forget the injustice and abuse done to them. Such injustice is the evil that authorities have brought upon themselves and they will be held accountable at the final judgment.
The child suffers also when there are no successful counseling, therapy, healing, and recovery centers in the Philippines. This lack exasperates the suffering and mental health of the estimated two million child victims/survivors. There are just a few well-managed non-government organizations (NGOs) that have excellent therapeutic and healing centers that take legal action for victims. There ought to be support for many more of them. They are essential to help in the overall approach to solving the problem. The help process is awareness, reporting, victim protection and therapy and healing, empowerment, legal action, and justice and reintegration. That is the process needed to give life back to an abused child. (To be continued)/PN
