THE PHILIPPINES is often cited as a global epicenter for the trade of livestreamed sexual abuse. Instances of the rape and sexual exploitation of children are growing. In 2023, the Philippine Statistics Authority recorded 11,479 rape cases involving girls younger than 16.
Hundreds of cases are referred to the courts annually, but the number of convictions is small, and no confirmed statistics are available on the convictions of child abusers. The Preda Foundation reports helping child abuse survivors secure an average of 20 convictions annually. In 2024, that number was 27. The Philippine National Police’s Women and Children’s Protection Center have filed 19 cases against 30 individuals for online child selling and illegal adoption since 2024, with at least one confirmed conviction for human trafficking early that year.
Therapy
In the padded therapy room of the Preda Foundation, children between 6 and 16 go there to cry and release their long-repressed sorrow and hurt over the abuse they suffered. Therapists are there to help and support them as they release their pitiful cries for justice — cries that had apparently gone unheard or ignored. They want to go home to the love of their siblings and supportive relatives. But they can’t because their court hearings have been delayed many times, and justice continues to be denied. In some cases, the police have not arrested the abusers, and the children may be abused again if they go home. Their rapists roam free to rape more children. Justice is so slow to come; their cries go on; so, too, do the punching of the cushions, as if they’re punching their rapists and their lifelong trauma without justice and closure.
What is driving this explosion of child abuse is the loss of moral values, of the true Christianity that fights injustice and works for social justice. Jesus had taught his disciples to see, judge and act for justice, human dignity and the protection of children. “At that time, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, ‘Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ He called a little child to him, placed the child among them, and said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.”
“If anyone causes one of these little ones — those who believe in me — to be abused, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.” (Matthew 18:1–7)
If justice is to be attained for abused children in the Philippines, we will need a lot of “millstones” — that is, “convictions” — for the thousands of child abusers allowed to walk free while their victims continue to cry out for justice. There is no greater shame than to deny justice to an abused child./PN
