[child-rights] PREDA NEWSLETTER March 2003

Dear friends and defenders of children's rights,

	This letter can open with some good news- a court victory against a cruel 
abuser who was found guilty of raping a 7-year old child Anabel and 
sentenced to life imprisonment. He was the live-in partner of the mother, 
Aniline, who was herself battered by him. He whipped the child with 
electric wires and a metal tube and sexually abused her several times. 
After five years of trying to get justice in a creaking judicial system, 
known for endless postponements and delays, and having bravely and 
courageously given testimony in court, the decision came down in her favor. 
PREDA social workers traveled the three-hour journey to Manila many times 
and doggedly persisted in having the case heard and not dismissed. This is 
typical of the justice system, there is a lack of judges and lawyers. A new 
bill in congress is proposing to double the salary of judges to ease the 
shortage.

	There are 37 children in the PREDA Children's Home, 22 of them have now 
found the emotional and spiritual strength to testify against their abusers 
and their cases are on going. There are another 17 cases frozen and 
archived because the police can't find the suspect to arrest him. The 
police are woefully incompetent. There have been two convictions this year, 
Anabel is one. Four were dismissed and the suspect went free.

	Testifying in court can be emotionally stressful and could be 
traumatizing. But the children are asking to do it. Before giving testimony 
and being cross-examined in court they have a training experience at PREDA 
in a play court. They go through the motions of attending court hearings, 
giving their sworn testimony, being cross-examined before an audience (the 
other children and staff) and in this way they are encouraged and affirmed 
and praised and helped to overcome the nervousness and fear they feel. This 
is in no way coaching or telling them what to say. The presence of the 
abuser in the courtroom is intimidating, the worst fear they have. PREDA 
social workers ask the courtroom to be cleared of the public. Then they sit 
in front of the abuser to block his angry stare. The child is instructed 
not to look at him. Most family court judges are very child friendly. In 
the future we   hope  to   help   the   family  court  get  a   video 
conference system to make it unnecessary for the child to give testimony in 
public.

Campaign Against Child Pornography
	We have been busy, too, trying to get a blatantly child pornographic comic 
strip in a tabloid banned. Our protestations got coverage on television and 
this helped win the outright support of the government social service 
director who threatened to file charges against the tabloid if they don't 
drop the strip.

Success Stories of Child Advocates
	A big success story is that of Marlyn and Pia, former prostituted 
children, who were both placed under the custody of PREDA. They then 
testified against their abusers in Holland and Germany who  fled the 
Philippine Court. PREDA filed charges against them in their respective 
countries and they were found guilty. Marlyn is an empowered young lady now 
and in her second year college taking up social work. She wants to help 
children abused as she was. Marlyn went to Germany last February as a guest 
of the stars of a TV detective series and together they promoted the PREDA 
Fair Trade projects and distributed PREDA dried tropical fruits during the 
street carnival. She returned after three weeks.

	Pia, also an active children's rights activist, will graduate from high 
school this March. Pia has traveled to Germany and Japan and is an active 
public speaker about the prostitution of children and her own experiences 
at the hands of paedophiles and pimps. Another former prostituted child, 
Gemma, is graduating too. She is a good public speaker and wants to work 
for abused children. She has been selected for the PREDA Youth Advocacy 
Theater this year and will tour Germany and Switzerland this May and June 
presenting the musical drama about the trafficking of children.

Spiritual Upliftment
	Six of the children at PREDA Children's Home received confirmation in the 
local parish and in the absence of their parents (several are abandoned 
children) the PREDA staff were their acting parents and sponsors. They 
attended life in the spirit seminars, where five of them won top prizes in 
a Bible quiz.

	The children find a rich spiritual life in the PREDA community. Recently 
with their music teacher they have formed a choir and are practicing daily. 
Imagine some of those children rescued from the clubs where they were 
prostituted and dressed in bikinis at 13 years old and made sex dancers are 
now dressed as angels praising God in song. What a change. One of them, 
fathered by an Australian man who has since died, said she had a lost 
brother abandoned in Manila. Last week, PREDA social workers  searching far 
and wide found him a street urchin. He is now happily reunited with his 
sister at PREDA.
	
	The children also visit the Missionaries of Charity Home for the Sick and 
help the old and the abandoned babies every week. The education department 
continued visiting schools, colleges, women's groups, and youth forum to 
deliver their children's rights and HIV-AIDS Prevention training, 
responsible parenthood and reduction of family violence. They also brought 
the PREDA youth to a slum area in Manila on the Payatas dumpsite and 
presented short drama, puppet shows, gift giving and group dynamics and 
games to the delight of over a hundred children. The children recovering at 
PREDA were there too, to sharing their talents with the slum kids.

Clamp Down on Bars and Clubs, Owners and Operators Charged
	When six minors, two of them only 13 years old, were brought to the PREDA 
Children's Home a few months ago from Angeles city, 60 miles from here, 
with the help of PREDA and the International Justice Mission the children 
brought criminal charges against the bar owners- an American and an 
Australian and three of their pimps who prostituted them and made them work 
as sex dancers. The suspects have all been arraigned in court and the 
trials are ongoing. PREDA staff working with the social welfare authorities 
were instrumental in bringing about the closing of nine sex bars and clubs 
in Angeles City as a result of our protest to the city authorities. The 
court also granted full legal custody of the children to PREDA under the 
child protection law as 'Ad Litem', that is in direct responsibility of 
their legal welfare. This is one of the first times this has been granted 
under Philippine law. It prevents the parents or the suspects from getting 
control of the children by filing habeas corpus cases against PREDA.

Another Court Victory
	In another strong decision by the highest legal office of the Philippines, 
the Presidential Legal office, PREDA and Fr. Shay was again totally 
exonerated and a previous decision dismissing another false charge was 
upheld. The decision dated 5 February 2003 upheld the truth that a 7-year 
old child rescued by PREDA and stated that the real abusers were her 
half-brother and a house boy and the child's father was neglecting her and 
protecting the two boys.

	This landmark decision by the Acting Deputy Executive Secretary for Legal 
Affairs of President Macapagal -Arroyo stated:

	". . . Asst. Prosecutor Lasam in his order dismissing the complaint, 
Ronald Payumo and Oliver Edmonds were the ones the victim originally 
accused of sexually abusing her for at least twelve (12) times. The victim 
even said that her father, herein appellee, did nothing when she told him 
about these abuses in the hands of Ronald Payumo Oliver Edmonds. Appellee's 
apparent inaction was the precise reason why the DSWD and PREDA took 
protective custody of the victim beginning January 29, 1998."

	He also dismissed the other arguments of the accuser as unsustainable and 
of no merit. This counter charge against Fr. Shay by the American 
non-biological father of the child was an attempt to shield his 'adopted 
son' and his friend from the accusation of the half-sister, a 7-year old 
little girl, by blaming Fr. Shay. It was an outrageous frame up and the 
false charge has now been exposed and repudiated four times by different 
investigating prosecutors in their resolutions to dismiss.

	The two abusers are presently charged before the Olongapo Regional Trial 
Court. The charge that tried to shift the blame from the two twelve 
year-old boys to Fr. Shay was based on fabricated evidence manufactured in 
a bar at a sex resort where three members of the sex mafia are known to 
frequent. One masquerading as a bar and restaurant operator, another a 
disgraced priest and the third, the American non-biological father of the 
child. They enlisted the help of two alleged bent field officers from a 
government human rights office to make the unbelievable counter charge 
appear credible. These three non-Filipinos are part of the group who 
campaigned for the release from prison of a convicted Australian paedophile 
and paid his bail.


Advocacy Theater Tour 2003
	The PREDA youth group, called AKBAY, will tour with the musical drama 'The 
Truth Behind the Masks" in Germany and Switzerland. This tells the powerful 
but harrowing story of exploitation and the trafficking of children into 
prostitution. The advocacy theater group traveled in Canada last year and 
participated to the Klondike Fair Trade days and had more than 26 
presentations.

More Children Released from Jails
	Members of the theater group are also part of the Jail Monitoring and 
Rescue Team assisted by two volunteer lawyers from Ireland, Darach 
MacNamara and Barry Mansfield. They have already found in the past few 
months a total of 160 minors, all boys some as young as 13 years-old. 
Forty-four have been released as a result of PREDA Rescue Team's 
intervention and 17 have been transferred to rehabilitation centers for 
youth. Sixteen prisons were visited for a total of 41 visits made to date. 
The work is continuing daily.

International Volunteers
	The international volunteers and intern students at PREDA are active and 
contributing very much to the PREDA programmes. Peter Donnelly is 
researching the background to the Davao Death Squads and Kelly Wugalter, a 
social worker from Canada is busy reorganizing the files of the children. 
Mary Hensley from the US is a great help in  the fair trade department 
helping us produce a new CD with the latest products from the handicraft 
producers we help. The volunteers and interns find their own financial 
support through sponsors  and so they don't exhaust any funds that are 
serving the needs of children. Many more have applied and we have volunteer 
openings for a craft designer, lawyer, agriculturist, social worker, and 
computer technician and a detective.

World Fair Trade Day
	The alternative trade and education  programme hosted a group of seven 
from Germany who's interest in PREDA and fair trade was well catered for as 
they visited many handicraft producers and the PREDA-assisted organic 
farmers. PREDA is presently working hard to promote the production of 
organically grown tropical fruits especially mangos. A workshop will be 
given by representatives from the Germany-based Naturland, an international 
certification group working with our German partner Dritte Welt Partners.

	PREDA will also launch a local fair trade produce, mango-guarana drink, on 
World Fair Trade Day, May 17th. This is in cooperation with our Italian 
partner Comalt in Italy that assists natives in the Brazilian rain forest 
to produce guarana, a medicinal herbal plant that gives a special taste and 
lift to the mighty mango drink. Comalt imports the hugely popular drink 
from PREDA to Italy where it has taken off in the supermarkets. They supply 
us with the guarana from Brazil. The PREDA dried mangos are a big hit in 
the world shops and in supermarkets such as the Super Quinn and Dunnes 
stores in Ireland, Sainsburys and Waitrose in the UK. The earnings help us 
to improve the lives of the poor farmers and abused children.

A Sad Ending for Amerasian Kid
	We were very sad with the violent death of Hakim, a young boy fathered by 
a US sailor and abandoned. He was cared for by PREDA when only 8 years old 
through the Filipino-American Child Project in 1993. When he was 15, he 
went to live with a foster family. He was stabbed to death last week on the 
street by a suspected drug addict and pusher. The area near Olongapo City 
is notorious as a haven for drug pushers and dealers.

	Hakim's sister is a scholar at the PREDA Center and will graduate from 
college with a degree in hotel and restaurant management this year. Hakim 
was one of the four Filipino-American children brought to the United States 
in 1993 as complainant in a class action suit taken by PREDA and the 
children against the US Navy claiming that they had been abandoned and 
deprived unjustly. The case was heard in Washington D.C. in the 
International Court of Complaints but was dismissed. The mothers of the 
children, the judge, said were all prostitutes and had no rights to file a 
complaint in court as the children were the result of illegal prostitution.

Children Voice Opposition to War in Iraq
	The PREDA staff and children and youth members traveled in convoy to 
Manila with streamers, banners and flags demanding peace and not war. One 
banner made by the youth leaders said, "Use Brains not Bombs, Make Peace 
not War".
Thousands gathered in Manila for the rally led by the Catholic Bishops 
Conference of the Philippines and leaders of all religious denominations 
and faiths. Muslim clerics delivered strong message for peace. The rally is 
in consonance with a worldwide movement denouncing a US-led war in Iraq.


With every best wish,

Fr. Shay, the PREDA Team and the children