THE NEWS in the Philippines these days is focused on impeachment, changing the Constitution, and other mundane political matters.
The public, Congress and government agencies are far from addressing the needs of children who are sexually and physically abused by relatives, human traffickers and online predators, and the seeming social acceptance that allows the abuse to happen.
The country’s justice system needs reform, and while many judges are working hard to deliver justice to child abuse victims, many others are not. Some have overloaded court schedules, causing a number of child-abuse cases to languish up to two to three years in some family courts. Such manufactured delays prolong the suffering of the child victims.
In a letter to the Preda Foundation in October 2023, Court Administrator Raul B. Villanueva said that out of 183 statutory family courts, only 106 are organized. They are clogged with many important cases. Child sexual abuse cases are about traumatized children, and they need special and immediate attention and speedy justice. As they say, justice delayed is justice denied.
Special children’s courts need to be established by law, with highly trained prosecutors and judges to bring justice and healing to the abused children. The convictions of their rapists would be a strong deterrence to would-be child abusers.
During a visit some years ago, Mama Fatima Singhateh, the United Nations’ special rapporteur for online child abuse and trafficking, said the Philippines should pass a law setting up a special children’s court. This is needed to hear and quickly resolve child abuse cases. It is hoped that children’s rights advocates in the Senate would work on this proposed legislation.
Meanwhile, telecommunications corporations and internet service providers (ISPs) must be held responsible for the uncontrolled transmission of images of sexual abuse of children beamed from the Philippines to pedophiles overseas. A corporate policy to deploy effective artificial intelligence-driven software is absent. Those allowing child abuse to happen are as guilty as those committing it.
The UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) has said as many as two million Filipino children have reported being sexually harassed and abused online. Due to stigma and fear of scoldings, most children do not report such abuse. With cheap mobile phones and low-cost internet access, the number of victims is likely to double or triple the known figure. Every child is vulnerable. The figures for child sexual abuse victims globally are sobering: one in three girls, one in every five boys.
Consider how people abuse their own offspring. What is seriously wrong with the human race? Humans are supposedly the world’s most intelligent creatures, with large brains. Most, apparently, have very low moral values. We are a damaged species, indeed, waging brutal, senseless wars against ourselves, driven by greed and ambition, with millions of people killed and wounded. Pedophiles and child abusers are waging war against children by raping and abusing them. (To be continued)/PN
