This Filipina received the 18th Asia Democracy and Human Rights Award for her decades-long commitment to protect children's rights not just here in the Philippines but across Asia.
We have here now Child Rights Coalition Asia Regional Executive Director Amihan Abueva.
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00:00 This Filipina received the 18th Asia Democracy and Human Rights Award
00:05 for her decades-long commitment to protect children's rights,
00:08 not just here in the Philippines, but across Asia.
00:12 We have here now Child Rights Coalition Asia Regional Executive Director, Amihan Abueva.
00:19 Amihan, congratulations on this regional recognition.
00:25 How does this award help push forward the mission and objectives of Child Rights Coalition Asia?
00:35 Well, it's very important to have this recognition because it just affirms that what we're doing is really very important,
00:43 that we really need to help our society really understand and appreciate children's rights.
00:50 Because most of the time we think of children, we think of them in terms of education or health,
00:55 but it's quite seldom that people really think of children as having rights.
01:01 That means having the right to have education, the right to have information, and the right to speak is often the problem.
01:11 Most parents think of children as beings to take care of, but not really part of how children can help make decisions in the family.
01:22 Because now, Amihan, we live in very complex and dynamic times.
01:28 How do we protect our children from being fed all kinds of information, including fake news?
01:33 That's actually the very critical part.
01:36 To do that, you really have to make sure that the parents and the children have established this relationship
01:42 where the children trust the parents to be providing them with the right information.
01:48 If the children are stable and they grow up learning that there's a difference between what is right and wrong,
01:58 that will actually help them become more critical.
02:01 But the problem is if children grow without trusting the adults around them, then they're really very susceptible.
02:11 So it's very crucial that…
02:13 Because there are a lot of predators out there.
02:15 Yeah, exactly.
02:16 And what we're finding is that children who are coming from unstable families are at higher risk of being exploited.
02:25 Because parents, caregivers, guardians can't always be looking over the shoulder of their children.
02:34 We have to start raising them from when they're a child and continue to guide them towards the right path.
02:45 Exactly. So this is why it's so important that from the beginning, from early childhood to middle childhood to adolescence,
02:54 you actually have this dynamic relationship between the parents and the child and the community.
03:01 So the whole problem that we're having now is that many parents are not really the trustworthy adult in their lives
03:09 because we're seeing a lot of cases of incest, of sexual abuse within the home.
03:15 And also the big problem is that we have high rates of violence against children in the home.
03:21 And even though we have some laws about violence on children in the RA 7610, for example, which we've had since 1991,
03:32 the problem is people don't understand that what they're doing to children is already quite violent.
03:38 But you know, Abihan, we have so many good laws, but the political will is not there to implement them.
03:45 Exactly. And this political will is actually shown in the way we spend the people's money.
03:51 So many of the laws for child rights and to protect children are unfunded laws.
03:57 If they're funded, they're funded very inadequately.
04:01 So a lot of the child protection efforts have to fall on the shoulders of civil society organizations
04:08 like the Child Protection Unit and many other NGOs in the country.
04:12 But is there synergy among these government agencies to protect our children?
04:18 That's exactly the problem. For example, we can see just in the case of having hotlines, for example, there are so many hotlines.
04:26 PNP has a hotline, the Interagency Council Against Trafficking has a hotline, the SWD, the Council for the Welfare of Children.
04:34 The simplest way would have been to just make one hotline, integrate everything.
04:40 But that's what we're really urging government to do.
04:44 But why hasn't it happened?
04:46 Because each agency has their own priorities.
04:51 They're working in silos.
04:52 Yeah, they're working in silos and they want to promote their own agency rather than really promote working together to protect our children.
04:59 Why do Filipinos have that kind of mindset?
05:02 I don't think it's Filipinos in general. It's the people in government. I mean, the politicians.
05:06 The bureaucracy.
05:07 The bureaucracy, yeah.
05:09 But the government should be for the people.
05:12 Exactly. And this is why we have to keep on persuading them, pushing them to do that.
05:18 Because the problem is if it's just a question of having their logo there or having their agency's budget, for example,
05:27 instead of putting together these budgets to have a greater impact, each agency is just trying to put it on their…
05:35 Under this Marcos Jr. administration, do you think the political will will be there to unite all of these agencies to have one hotline and to help the people?
05:44 That remains to be seen. That remains to be seen.
05:47 We've been talking to the Council for the Welfare of Children, urging them to do this, but that remains to be seen.
05:54 I mean, when he spoke about the budget, he mentioned that this is for the welfare of the people and the children.
06:04 But it's in the way you use the money that really makes a difference.
06:09 It's how you allocate the money and it's how you spend it.
06:13 And this is where the problem, I think, comes up.
06:17 And this is why we've been advocating on better public investments for children,
06:21 which means we look at the way government spends for children, not just the amounts,
06:26 but looking at how synergy is achieved and how efficiently the funds are used.
06:33 That's very important.
06:34 And of course, apart from, you mentioned, predators at home and among family members, now you have the online predators.
06:44 And we've seen the child sexual abuse cases rising, especially during the pandemic.
06:51 And this also has to be stopped.
06:53 So now the fight is on all fronts.
06:55 Yes, exactly.
06:56 And this is why the lack of cooperation or synergy becomes even more criminal,
07:03 because more children are falling into all of these different problems.
07:08 So this is why we really need to have a stronger interagency cooperation to protect children's rights.
07:17 And also we need to change this thinking, because now there's a difference in the way people think.
07:25 In the past, parents said, "Oh, we're here to protect our children and to take care of our children."
07:30 Now there's been a shift.
07:32 Some parents think that it's the role of the children to provide for the family rather than for the parents.
07:38 But of course, parents need help to be able to provide for their children.
07:42 They need to have good jobs.
07:44 They need to be paid well.
07:45 So it's really a whole society approach that we need to do.
07:50 We need to convince employers.
07:52 If you pay your workers a decent wage and give them enough time with their families
07:58 rather than having them to work overtime all the time, for example,
08:02 then you actually help to build the family.
08:05 But you're right.
08:08 There's so many things that have to be addressed,
08:10 and we have to look at the role of each part of the society in doing this.
08:14 And we do hope that a solution will be found sooner rather than later.
08:19 Thank you so much, and congratulations on this Asian recognition.
08:24 Amiana Weva, Regional Executive Director from Child Rights Coalition Asia.
