Assignment for Photojourn

Right to Awareness or Awareness of Rights?
Maricris V. Faderugao BJ 2-1D

December 6, 2008 -- Children all over Metro Manila marched their way from Bustillos Church to Mendiola together with Children’s Rights Advocates and Salinlahi, an alliance for children concerns to address their grievances to the Arroyo Administration. Most of these children came from poor rural communities to support the advocates in voicing out what they have to say about various national issues especially on the issue of children human rights violation.


The theme of the mob was the dream fight between Pacquiao and Dela Hoya. The protesters spoofed the upcoming event and called it a ‘Nightmare match’. PGMA was portrayed as the champion perpetrator among all human rights violators together with George Bush as her primary supporter.

The program consisted life experience talks of the marginalized children who wants to fight for their rights like good education, shelter and food.
Under the book entitled, ‘Uncounted Lives: Children, Women and Conflict in the Philippines’ by the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), a data has been compiled based on the Children’s Rehabilitation Center (CRC) report from 2001-2006. The data shows that out of 800 reported human violation incidents in the Philippines, 215,233 Filipino children were confirmed to be victims. 58 among those kids were murdered, 40 were mutilated and 17 were tortured including various forms and instances of psychological torture. The remaining 215,060 children were evacuees from their homes in the counter- insurgency operations in Mindanao.

Another important issue tackled during the mob is the growing number of Filipinos going overseas. Gary Martinez of Migrante International addressed the vast effects of migration and human skills exportation stressing not only on the economic side but most likely to families and the emotional repression that it’s causing the children because of the absence of their parents. He stressed that while family members from abroad were able to sustain a decent lifestyle for their loved ones in the country, the gap on personal relationships are inevitable which most likely results in having broken families.
Meanwhile, as serious as the program may seem regarding different national issues, the children seemed far too innocent about the cause of the event that they attended. We tried asking some of the kids what they know about the issues that are being raised on the event, apparently we did not get any answer. Those children don’t seem to know where the advocates are saving them from and worse, they were there not knowing what they were doing contrary to the statement of Salinlahi’s Alfons Rivera, the organizer of the mob who claimed to believe that the children knew what they are doing since that they gave seminars and workshops before they brought the kids to protest.

This photo was taken while the program is ongoing.