Coming from a job interview one gloomy, humid Saturday back in 2002, I came across a middle-aged lady shaking as if she had fever on the corner of EDSA and P. Tuazon Street in Cubao in Quezon City. Her face grimacing in pain and anxiety. She told me her name is Nida and she travelled all the way from Bicol to look for her sister. But she ran out of cash looking for her sister’s home address in Quezon City.
I asked her if she’s eaten already but she said her mouth and stomach just couldn’t take in food. In fact, she already had her plastic bag full of food and some cash given to her by passersby. She was in real, burning, freaking pain. And no one dared to listen to her.
Realizing we both didn’t have enough money in our pockets, I decided to look for help from the nearest police outpost. I told the two police officers about the situation of Nida who was just outside their station for since early morning.
One of the officers had mistaken me for a Franciscan seminarian for wearing the “tau cross” that I wore around my neck. I told him I was a lay missionary. And simply he said, “aaahhh…”
I have always been a great fan of Francis of Assisi. And that day, I knew I had to be a “Francis” to Nida. Because I had nothing but myself to help her.
It took about an hour before the officers brought me and Nida to the nearest DSWD’s reception and action center in Kamuning. Shockingly, the center’s main door was padlocked from the outside. According to the center’s supervisor, they do it so that the children wouldn’t escape. Escape from what?
The center had no electricity, owing the flickering light from the lone “gasera” inside a small room that’s packed in with around 20 kids. I was worried about what would happen to Nida there. I needed to leave her that night. I needed to go home.
I know, I should’ve brought her to the hospital instead. But I didn’t have money. I didn’t have a cellphone load that time even if I wanted to call my friends in the media and my spiritual communities. I had so many excuses. Because I didn’t have money.
But money is not an excuse not to accept the call to help. There’s more to serving than just giving money.
Today, there are still many Nida’s roaming the streets of Manila and more Nida’s being neglected in these “rescue centers”. Yes, they need our money. But more than that, they need our voice, our care, our compassion, our love through our genuine acts of kindness.
Petition: Upgrade or Close RAC
This photo was taken inside Reception and Action Center, Manila (RAC) on 12 October 2014. It shows a child who is clearly severely malnourished and very unwell lying naked on a cement floor. On the date this photo was taken this child had been under the ‘protective custody’ of the Philippine government, specifically the Manila City government, for seven months. He had received no medical treatment. Upon release to Bahay Tuluyan he had a black eye and bruising and initial medical reports indicated he had ‘multiple injuries secondary to mauling’.
The conditions inside RAC are abysmal. Children are detained in this center without charge yet are treated worse than criminals. They are denied the most basic rights – adequate food, clean water, bedding and even clothing. Moreover not only are children denied contact with their families but their families are often not even notified that they are being held inside RAC.
Children inside RAC are brought there by government officials, police or barangay tanod, often after having been beaten or mistreated. Most of the time the children do not even know why they are being taken to RAC, with workers citing various reasons for admission; ‘rescue’, ‘curfew’ or commission of an offence. Accordingly, children accused of committing offences are detained in the same quarters as those who have supposedly been ‘rescued’ for protective purposes. The beating and abuse continues inside RAC with children being both physically and sexually abused by both staff and fellow chidlren.
Bahay Tuluyan, along with its many partners, has been advocating for better conditions in RAC since 2008 (refer especially to Sagip or Huli: Rescue of Street Children in Caloocan, Manila, Pasay and Quezon Cities, 2009) and has involved the Manila City government, DSWD and CHR in various discussions about the above mentioned concerns. Despit this there has been no change in the conditions in RAC during that time.
This horrific treatment of children can not continue. Adequate policies and laws exist in the Philippines to regulate the running of child care institutions to appropriate standards yet this insitution, run by government, falls far below those standards.
Sign the petition here.
GOOD NEWS from Bahay Tuluyan!
