- 2 days ago
The disappearance and suspected murder of two-year-old Angelo Tobias Plaza has left the nation searching for answers.
But are fathers doing enough to protect their children?
What role does fatherhood play in preventing abuse, neglect and violence against children?
We tackle the difficult questions with Rhondel Feeles of the Fathers' Association.
But are fathers doing enough to protect their children?
What role does fatherhood play in preventing abuse, neglect and violence against children?
We tackle the difficult questions with Rhondel Feeles of the Fathers' Association.
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NewsTranscript
00:15a very good evening and welcome to beyond the headlines tonight the nation continues to grapple
00:21with the heartbreaking disappearance and the suspected murder of two-year-old and angelo
00:27tobias plaza a case that has sparked outrage it has sparked grief and renewed questions about the
00:35protection of children in tnt but beyond the criminal investigation tonight we examine another
00:42difficult discussion the role of fathers and or male figures in the lives safety and development
00:49of children what happens when fathers are absent what happens are there warning signs are those
00:56signs ignored and how can stronger fatherhood involvement help prevent children from falling
01:03through the cracks joining us tonight we have rondell fields of the fathers association as we
01:10discuss fatherhood accountability and protecting the nation's children thank you so much for joining us
01:17ronnie of course just to let our viewers know putting it out there ronnie and i went to school
01:24together we were classmates his mom was our standard five teacher so we do have that um past connection
01:32so let's get straight into it um your first reaction when you heard about the disappearance and now
01:39what we suspect to be the murder of little angelo tobias plaza what went through your mind when you
01:45heard this story um first of all i i would think regret more than anything else and the reason why
01:54i say
01:54regret more than anything else um this is something that we have seen over the years this is something
02:02that we've seen happen to children unfortunately over the years this is something we've spoken about the
02:08ag spoken about actually telecommittees spoken about on morning shows when it comes to the protection of our
02:15children and and because this case is so similar to cases that we've highlighted before like the reyes
02:23brothers who lost their lives similarly when they stepfather slip their slip their truth as kiana
02:30kumabach that was this she was found in a burial stepfather again as little amara that was found
02:37decapitated and cut off sheldon elite's daughter and this is something that we continue each father
02:45in every of those circumstances complaining about being parentally alienated from their children
02:51we've lamented um with heads of state we've lamented with ministries of the value and the protective
02:59arm that both parents allowing both parents to participate balanced and equally in the life of
03:05their children particularly when it's a separated scenario the value and the extra protective arm it
03:12affords the child we've seen it work many times we've seen fathers who have had access to their
03:19children intervene in scenarios that could have ended deadly fathers who have access to the children
03:25who intervened in scenarios where their children were sexually assaulted by the lovers of their mothers
03:31and i would imagine that some persons could speak similarly and the other arm of it as well and vice
03:37versa
03:37so as i said i usually would regret because we have lamented about issues and situations like these
03:46that have happened in the past so to see yet another child have to lose their life over something that
03:53we have asked continuously to be addressed it just leaves our feeling of regret because i believe that
04:02i mean had we done something that it very well may have circumvented this kind of activity or behavior
04:08now let me ask you now this story has changed so many times initially we were told told that the
04:15child
04:17walked off he wandered alongside the sea in goodwood and he would have perished in the water then you know
04:26investigations continued and we started to hear more until today there's reportedly a confession
04:31but the initial story ronnie was there anything any red flags that you would have noticed any loopholes in
04:41the story i mean most definitely uh you don't know where the child is i mean you don't have a
04:47sign
04:47you know of where the child is then when you're being asked and approached i looked at the mannerism
04:53of the of the parties involved and i'm talking about only the person who was confessed today i'm talking about
04:59also the biological mother and i only really saw distraught um from the the biological father and
05:05his mother i didn't see that level of distraught and pain and anguish and concern that any parent
05:13would have for the loss of their children this father is a father that was supposed to be disconnected
05:20and he was not allowed to be in the child life yet you could see such pain in his eyes
05:26and the
05:26grandmother eyes who also would have been parentally alienated as well yet the person that the child
05:33resided with didn't display that kind of concern or didn't display that kind of remorse didn't display
05:38that kind of pain and and and and i mean to me i am still at this very point i
05:45just hope this
05:46investigation goes wide and far and deep and we just don't stay with one confession we really need to get
05:52to the bottom of this and see that to see and make sure that anybody that had any rule of
05:58involvement
05:58in in in this child's disappearance that they face the full brunt of the law now i do have to
06:04ask you
06:04you did see that there um this case is similar to many cases highlighted before what are some of the
06:12patterns um and i do have to reflect somewhat on former prime minister dr keith rowley i think there was
06:19a
06:20lot of uproar when he told women to be careful of who they allow into their bedrooms or something of
06:25that sort but we keep on seeing cases upon cases which reflect that actual warning that he tried to
06:34give i mean and it's greater than that i mean single parents and the whole of parents who are separated
06:40and
06:41are now engaging in new relationships you have to be you have to be extra careful because the person that
06:47you're going to be bringing into your life it doesn't only apply to you the things they do
06:52don't only affect you they are now involved in the lives of your vulnerable children so whether you
06:59are a man or whether you are a woman your selection of a mate that is to come into your
07:04life is something
07:04that is critical and important so that's why i rubbish the fact that some persons took umbrage with what
07:10he said because i tell men the very same thing all the time particularly if you are in a separated
07:17relationship a separated um a past relationship with children being involved you have to have you
07:25have to be aware of this person's past this person's history this person capability and and and ensure
07:31that your children will be safe in their presence and their company i mean we're looking at the aspect
07:37of it here only when it has to deal with the child being killed but there are many children that
07:41are
07:42sexually assaulted by step parents as well and some of them being sexually assaulted as we're
07:47speaking right now and it just hasn't come to the fores yet so it's critical and it's very important
07:55that you select very wisely who you're not only bringing into your life but the lives of your
08:01very vulnerable children nobody got vexed with you for saying that now we have seen police uh have
08:09held or have detained seven persons for questioning now that number to me seems a little bit alarming
08:18that signals to me that seven persons have some level or are suspected to have some level of knowledge
08:25as to what happened to this child additionally the confession reportedly did not come from the mother
08:33what does that say work i mean i mean this is uh we don't know how deep this really goes
08:41i mean we've
08:41seen so many things that happen all across the world with children being human trafficked you see children
08:47being um being sold on on black markets and children being used to be involved in in sexual practice
08:56children and and there's even allegations of children across the world and humans across the world
09:01and black market parts being sold off body parts and these things these things are actual things that
09:07there's evidence that actually takes place in the world so i mean it's it's to me very frightening and
09:13i mean that at least seven people would have known what took place in this child's life and possibly
09:20that's what got 107 to speak now but i mean after all the the hunting and the searching and the
09:26praying
09:27and i'm in tobago right now and i could tell you tobago is up in arms and i i i
09:31have to commend the
09:32citizens of tobago as well they didn't take this lightly they didn't leave it like and push it under the
09:38the the the the rock they came out they whether it was in the pages they came out whether everything
09:43there was in the prayer groups and they kept it alive and i think that's one of the reasons that
09:48actually provoked the confession today and as i said before i am hoping that we just don't take a
09:55surface confession and then it may actually be a lot deeper than we really see it now cases like this
10:02often force a country to ask itself hard questions where are we feeling our children
10:10what we are feeling our children in a number of regards and and it's not only in this instance here
10:16where there's loss of life there's areas like parental child abduction that we we've been lamenting
10:22for years we call it civil child abduction here just this week just this week we got a report of
10:28a
10:28young girl being parentally abducted to jamaica father can't find out anywhere mother just pick
10:34up the child and going back to jamaica i shared a video not so long ago of a young boy
10:39parentally
10:40abducted to jamaica as well with the stepfather in a video that he shared encouraging him in making gun
10:46signs and gang signs and these things so whereas we understand parental alienation having its issues when it
10:54comes to children losing their lives even those children that are alive some of them are being
11:00taken to other countries to work some of them being taken to other countries by their very parents and
11:05involved in prostitution some of them we had venezuelan fathers contact us who have information that the
11:11children are here they didn't give their children permission to be here and the children begging on the
11:15street so i mean what are we really doing to protect children in trinidad and tibaig when you've been
11:22highlighting issues like these things that there's no legislation to support or to really criminalize
11:28some of these actions or activities being committed against being committed towards children by their
11:34very own parents sometimes we believe it's because their parents they can harm their children but we've
11:39tested proven and seen that that is not true tonight we're specifically discussing fathers how important
11:46is an active and present father figure in in a child's life um as far as it relates to safety
11:54and
11:55emotional development critical and important i mean uh any positive parent and i say particularly as
12:03you say father father is always seen as a protector no matter what if you if you want to say
12:09we don't want to
12:09discuss or consider gender roles you go to any nuclear family and you speak to the children and they will
12:16tell you who makes them feel most protected a daddy in the home makes the children and the mommy feel
12:24very safe that is the one locking the doors that is the one checking to see everything is taken care
12:29of
12:29if there's a if a bat a rat anything fly in the house that is the one coming out if
12:35an intruder enters the
12:36house daddy makes himself available and present and puts his life on the line he is a superhero
12:43in a household so in some situations we understand separated situations some children don't have
12:50daddy there all the time but the fact that daddy is present or the fact that they are able to
12:56interact with daddy they could reach out to daddy they say daddy i am in danger help me and children
13:02most times that don't have that opportunity because of this type of alienation are the ones that we
13:08find murdered most times and disappearing out of trees because there's the other biological parent is
13:15not there to extend that additional protective arm now quite often we hear about absentee fathers right
13:23in your perspective from your work how prevalent is the problem of absentee fathers and how does that
13:29compare to fathers who are disallowed from having a relationship with their child how i mean if you
13:37could give us percentage why i would definitely i would definitely say there are more fathers that
13:42want to be involved in their children's like that compared to those that don't want to be involved
13:48i mean we always hear about the father who's a deadbeat father culturally we heard about that before we came
13:54into the forefront and we started to show the number of fathers that wanted to be involved and that is
14:01for a particular reason most of the fathers of this generation were the boys of the last generation
14:06that didn't have their fathers and understand the significance of they being involved in their
14:12children's life so that is why now generationally you've seen a shift where men want to be more
14:18involved but we are still affected by an archaic system that still says that here what take two
14:24today's parental um opportunity leave two to three days you're still in a system that says take every
14:31other weekend which is four days access to your child for the entire month you're still in a system
14:37that doesn't change so though culturally and generationally you may have seen men shift because
14:42of what because of what they have lacked in their boyhood we still haven't accommodated it legislatively
14:47we still have accommodated it socially and those are the things that need to be here to realign and
14:53readjust let's pause this conversation to come right back when we retain we'll continue the conversation
15:00about fatherhood accountability and child protection in the wake of the angelo tobias plaza case stay with us
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22:53And in our region, can you believe it, we aren't signed on in bilateral agreements
23:00and we are signed on with a lot of children with a lot of children with a lot of children
23:09that were parentally abducted to these nations and returned right down the road in Jamaica and Guyana and these nations
23:17where we could draw up some curriculum agreement so that when children are illegally removed by one parent that they
23:24be returned to the member state.
23:26We haven't done it.
23:28These are things that they are now and these nations.
23:37so as to prevent this type of behavior that sometimes if parents are disingenuous could
23:44lead to either death of children could lead to prostitution of children could lead to human
23:50trafficking of children by their very own parents and and nothing's being done i've spoken to edgy
23:58and that's the thing that's the thing when this happens is when somebody wants to listen
24:05so when amara died the aj at that point in time wanted to spoke to talk to me when kiana
24:12died
24:12we decided let's form a child protection task force i was one of the members and i'll bring
24:17all the children authority when self-honored children died there was always we always have to wait to see
24:24deaths of little children to be moved to do what we're supposed to do how do how do fathers in
24:32these
24:33situations grieve and i am assuming that they grieve differently from a father that was allowed into
24:41a child's life they must have regrets that if i was there maybe i would have known i would have
24:48seen a
24:48red flag i mean it's hard they never really heal to this point sheldon up to this day sheldon need
24:56to
24:56call me sometimes mr fields are trying to start a group in memory of of amara and and he going
25:03in
25:03front of the ministry of justice he have a meeting minister justice anything they could do to make
25:09themselves feel better anything they could do to to to to to make themselves feel like hey this is how
25:15i
25:15i am possibly protecting her memory even if i couldn't save her life so as you said it's it's
25:21hard for them to grapple it's hard for them to hold on to because the very most parents that are
25:28alienated whether a man or woman they live seeing their children whether it's from youtube videos or
25:33looking at you the the custodial parents posting to know the child what the child is doing at this
25:38point in time they're totally alienated so when the child dies those are the things they have to hold
25:44on to as well we have children that apparently abducted again i keep bringing it up from america
25:50into trinidad and i have seen a father for the last 15 years every day they have every year they
25:58have
25:58a birthday he brings a cake on youtube and posts a video for them hoping that they get to see
26:03it so that
26:04is how parents who are alienated from them their children celebrate birthdays celebrate life events
26:10who's yet imagine when something tragic like this happens and it's death they have to know we we just
26:15have a few more seconds but i have to ask and i have to close by asking do you believe
26:20if this father
26:22antonio plaza was more involved in this child's life was allowed to be more involved in this child's
26:29life that he would have been here today could have been most definitely and the reason i'm seeing that is
26:35because i have evidence of fathers intervening as i said earlier and saving the lives of their
26:41children fathers intervening and finding out when stepfathers were sexually assaulting their daughters
26:48so them being given the opportunity to have a space with the child and the child now because sometimes the
26:54child living in the home with the mom don't want to complain to the mother sometimes the child
27:00particularly those girls that are sexually assaulted complaining to the mother and being attacked for
27:06complaining to the mother and it is because they have the ambits of their father or the ambits of their
27:12grand paternal grandparents they find that other arm and they find that other source of their family
27:18to be able to to make this type of report now that's where we have to leave the conversation tonight
27:24the
27:24disappearance and the suspected murder of two-year-old angelo tobias plaza has shaken this country to its
27:31core but it has it has also forced difficult conversations about parenting responsibility and
27:37the collective duty to protect protect our children our thanks tonight to rondelle fields thank you so much
27:44of the father's association for joining us the people meter results come up after the break
27:56to avoid all the time being taken to a spooky adventure the trip to an anomaly so we don't get
27:57to
27:57the victor of the king as well as there are so many people to come into the coast of the
27:58country
27:58that they can challenge us to have a great state of tourism thank you so much
27:58of course there are so many people to do that but we're not going to be able to do that
27:58to give us a good job of you and of course we haven't been a fairest a lot of
27:58and we're going to be here for a great day.
27:59Thank you for joining us today.
27:59Thanks to my own my family.
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