By VENMAR CECILLE
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – More children have fallen victim to the government’s offensive military operations.
This was a major finding at the fact-finding mission on the massacre of the Fausto family in Negros province. The mission was conducted on June 22 at Brgy. Buenavista, Himamaylan, Negros Occidental.
Last June 14, Roly and Emelda Fausto, 55 and 50 years old, respectively, were killed along with their two sons Ben, 15, and Ravin, 12. Photos retrieved by members of the mission showed a bloodied body of a boy, with his right leg mutilated (later found in a separate doorway at the back) and another boy’s body found inside the hut.
Prior to their deaths, the family experienced harassment and other forms of abuse from military elements, as documented by the human rights group Karapatan.
Read: ‘Probe massacre of peasant family in Negros’ – rights group
“The recent massacre incident clearly shows the abuse of military authority over the civilian population and its damaging effects on our children and the people,” the Children’s Rehabilitation Center (CRC) stressed.
According to CRC, the government’s counter-insurgency program under Executive Order No. 32 series of 2017 targeted children together with their parents, accusing them as supporters of the New People’s Army (NPA). They said that the children, their families, and the whole civilian communities are constantly at risk because of intensified military operations particularly in Negros, Samar, and Bicol.
EO 32 was signed by then President Rodrigo Duterte to supposedly address ”lawless violence and acts of terror.” It has become a basis for the “whole-of-the-nation approach” of the government’s anti-communist witch hunt, resulting in the creation of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).
The continuing counter-insurgency programs caused several cases of red-tagging and killings that included children. The CRC identified several cases of child rights violations prior to the killings of the Fauso children.
For example, a child was among the seven Negrenses who were killed on July 25, 2019, in a series of extrajudicial killings in Negros Oriental. Marlon Ocampo and his child were killed in Sta. Catalina, Negros Oriental while his wife and another unnamed child sustained severe injuries. In another incident, Everly Jacolbe, 16, was killed on July 16, 2022, after soldiers of the 62nd IB attacked the hut where she was staying with her pregnant mother in Trinidad, Guihulngan City, Negros Oriental.
In Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental, a soldier also shot and killed a 15-year-old resident of Barangay 1 back in 2021.
In May 2022, a Grade 5 student was traumatized in a strafing incident by soldiers at Sitio Banwa Minatay, Barangay Marcelo, Calatrava, Negros Occidental. Meanwhile, the evacuation of 18,000 residents in Barangay Carabalan, Himamayalan, Negros Occidental on October 16, 2022, marked a psychological impact on the children caused by fear and displacement.
CRC’s Tiben Wahing said that this pattern of child rights violations has created a culture of fear and trauma for the children. “These massacres have grave effects on the mental health and well-being of the children in the affected communities. It could trigger post-traumatic disorder and other mental health problems in the long run.”
The report of CRC from the fact-finding mission also showed the normalization of military harassment of children in the communities. “More than intimidation, children are being fired upon in the open grounds, while being tagged as members of the New People’s Army (NPA). Children are suffering extreme fear which could affect their everyday lives,” Wahing said.
Wahing stressed that the children in the conflicted regions are supposed to be protected under Republic Act (RA) 11188 or the Special Protection of Children in Situation of Armed Conflict. “Therefore, it is a crime for the state agents to brand children as terrorists or child soldiers (as this) could endanger their lives, most especially (if the tagging is) without sufficient basis.”
False branding of children or labelling children as children involved in armed conflict is prohibited under Section 9 of RA 11188. Any person found guilty of violating this can be penalized with imprisonment of 6 to 12 years, and a fine of Php 500,000 to Php 1,000,000.
With this, CRC called for justice for the Fausto family and all the child victims of state-perpetrated human rights violations. They also demanded accountability from the 94th Infantry Batallion, the latest perpetrators of the human rights abuses against the Fausto family.
They also asked the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to make a thorough investigation into this incident and extend help to the victims and their families. “The state and the military are the real homewreckers (in this situation). They are intentionally destroying the foundations of the family through continuous harassment and worse, killing,” Wahing said. (RTS, DAA) 
