Special report
Philippines
Fall, 2001

Filipino Children
Braving the Storm

In its grant making, the Fund often struggles to grasp the political, economic, and military conditions which create the challenges to mental health to which our partners are responding. This article from the Children's Rehabilitation Center helps us begin to better understand the human rights dimensions of their work. For a longer version of this article, see The Just Word, Fall, 2001. To visit the CRC's website, click here.

Children's Rehabilitation Center, Quezeon City, Philippines
By Cristina Purificacion, Executive Director, CRC.

It was the 10th of July, 2000, and the place, Lupang Pangako or "Land of Promise," in Payatas, Quezon City. The rains which lasted for a week had just stopped. Families are busy with the regular morning routine when they notice that the mountain of garbage nearby is about to collapse. Most of the residents have just started to evacuate when the mountain of garbage begins to cave in. More than 500 houses and 300 individuals are buried alive. Only 229 bodies are recovered. Katherine, 13 years old, is one of the children-victims of the Payatas tragedy. In one of our visits, she shared her sentiments about their life after the tragedy:

I still feel sad whenever I remember our house and my childhood friend Jorge buried under the garbage in Payatas. But unlike before, when it was so difficult and very painful whenever I recalled it, now I have learned to accept what happened.
Life is much harder now that we are relocated from Payatas to Kasiglahan Village One in San Jose Plains, Rodriguez Rizal. I only had a few friends in Payatas before, but I was happier compared to here in Kasiglahan Village, even if there are a lot of new acquaintances coming from different places that were demolished.
My father used to work in a construction site but after the Payatas tragedy, he lost his job and now he is scavenging at the Payatas dump site. He has to spend money for transportation going to the dump site unlike before when it was just walking distance.
Here in Kasiglahan, we don't have water and electricity. I'm trying to accept the tragedy and that we have been relocated, but with all the difficulties we are facing now, I regret the change.

Filipino families are squatters here in our own country. Here in Metro Manila alone, about four million people live under the bridges and alongside creeks, sewerage canals and rail roads. Others fit their families in push carts and spend their life in the streets. The poverty in the countryside brought by landlessness and militarization of the peasant families has driven them to urban centers in search of livelihood and peace. Unfortunately, the urban centers do not offer a better life; they offer joblessness, poor wages for those employed, and inhumane living conditions.
Amid the difficulties besetting the Filipino families, social services like education, health and housing as well as basic utilities like water and electricity are no longer accessible. Even social services are being privatized or are operated like businesses.
Demolition has been the primary response of the government to the housing problem. And for those relocated to low cost housing projects like the Kasiglahan (Bliss!) Village, families pay a monthly minimum amortization of P300-500 for 25 years which is not affordable for a jobless, urban poor family that earns a living by scavenging, vending, or subcontracting. Relocation sites displace families from a source of living and also lack facilities like electricity, water, health and schools. According to the children-victims of the Payatas tragedy, in one small classroom at Kasiglahan Village One, there are 130 school children. The village is also located on a major fault line.
The Filipino children continue to suffer the brunt of the crisis brought about by the economic policies of the Philippine government in its adherence to globalization. In her state of the nation address, flanked by three children-victims of the Payatas tragedy, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo promised jobs, justice, shelter, food. She promised a better future for the children. But a lot of children can't see the future. The children in the streets, the homeless, those orphaned, killed or maimed by the continuing militarization in the countryside, those abused, those who are deprived of development and are pushed to hard work, the Filipino children only know of today:

The children's activities helped me accept the loss of our home but it also taught me to assert for justice to the tragedy that met us. I also understood the situation of poor Filipino children from the peasant and worker's family. Joining advocacy activities like theater plays and mobilizations helped me because I was able to share with other people our situation.

The trauma to children brought about by the worsening Philippine situation challenges our psychosocial work. Thus, our efforts seek not only to provide relief and rehabilitation for children with individual trauma, but also to strengthen their ability to speak out for their human rights.

Return to Top

Home Page	News & Events	More Info	Our Newsletter	Our Projects
Applying	We Need Help	Contact Us	Site Map	Links

English to Spanish translations
courtesy of Melisa Flores

© 2007, Ignacio Martín-Baró Fund for Mental Health & Human Rights