DAVAO CITY — Coming from Davao City and different municipalities of Davao del Norte, and Davao Oriental, 40 children see poverty as top driving force that pushes them into prostitution and labor.
Child prostitution and child labor, they said, are the top problems in their respective areas. The other concerns affecting children are rape inside homes by their own family, friends of their family and relatives, gangsterism, and peer pressure.
They expressed their sentiments during Tuesday’s Fish Bowl Discussion of Children Proteksyunan, mga Isyu Solusyunan (Fish Bowl Discussion of Children Protect and Address Issues) at Grand Men Seng Hotel.
The activity was convened by child advocates – Talikala and Child Alert Mindanao.
A teenager from Boulevard, Davao City, said child prostitution and child labor are increasing in their area. She said children need to work to help their parents earn a living.
She said they are forced to do this even if it means degrading their dignity.
She said government should look closer into child prostitution problem.
“Dili siya makita kay patago man labi na kung bata ang ginabaligya (It is not visible because it is discreetly done especially if a child is being sold – for sex),” she added.
A rejoinder from another teenager said that once children earn money, there’s no more stopping them until they stop going to school.
A lumad child from Talaingod also aired her sentiments that lumads are being discriminated especially when they come down to the city.
She said some people would tell them lumads are only in the hinterlands.
According to another child, parents should be educated about child issues and how to be responsible parents to keep their children away from abuses.
The round-table discussion of the children is the culminating activity organized by NGO alliance on child advocates for the National Children’s Month, which commemorates the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by the United Nations General Assembly.
Bernie Mondragon, convener and the executive director of Child Alert Mindanao, said the round-table activity is aimed at providing children the venue to express freely their thoughts and feelings about their situation and other children in their communities.
Mondragon said there are many programs the government has implemented but these are not enough to address concerns on prostitution, online sex exploitation.
While there is a family development sessions of the Department of Social Welfare and Development in the barangays, Mondragon said the sessions are for the 4Ps beneficiaries only.
He pointed to the barangay officials’ failure to implement laws for the protection of children.
The Barangay Council for the Protection of Children, he said does not even function well to implement programs.
Mondragon said the barangay leaders are the first line of defense of the children against abuses.
Child Alert which serves five barangays in Davao City, has been conducting life skills activities and child protection education advocacies for parents.
Mondragon said government must strike the very roots causes of child prostitution, child labor, gangsterism, among others. (Lilian C. Mellejor/PNA)
