KARAPATAN-Southern Mindanao Region

TASK FORCE WOMEN AND CHILDREN         

Press Statement 

May 28, 2003

KARAPATAN HOLDS 73RD IB, POLICE, GUILTY OF HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS; 

SCORES DEL ROSARIO'S DENIAL OF HAND IN THE YOUTH CAMP RAID

Karapatan Task Force Women and Children (KTFWC) holds the perpetrators of the recent 

youth camp raid guilty of grave human rights violations against minors who were made 

hapless victims in that incident.  

Victims' accounts would prove that the said military operation was an illegal search

characterized by violence inflicted on minors in the form of physicalassault, 

harassment and grave threats.

It likewise denounces 73rd Infantry Battalion Commander Eduardo del Rosario's brazen 

denial of his unit's handin the incident. 

About 200 fully armed men who later identified themselves as a composite team of the 

Army's 73rd Infantry Battalion, the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Davao 

City Police Auxiliary Group (DCPAG) barged into the campsite. 

They swooped down the area, roused the children from sleep with their rifles, forced 

them to carry out orders at gunpoint and inflicted physical harassment upon some of 

them.

A 17-year-old-participant (name withheld for security reasons) recalled that while 

they were herded out of their tents at gunpoint he was held by one of the armed man 

in the shoulder, forced to stand up, and told "Sige dagan karon kay pusilon tika!" 

when he tried to grope for his slippers. 

A 15-year-old girl also recounted how she trembled in fear when the military poked 

him with an armalite and gave her orders not to say anything.  

Another youth participant recounted how one of the soldiers struck him in the foot 

using the butt of an armalite, later cocking the gun at him while being ordered to 

put his arms on the back. 

One testified he heard some yelled outside the tent saying "Hoy, gising na kayo!" 

only to be confronted with a muzzle of the armalite from military men in assault 

position. 

Despite these, Col. Del Rosario still brazenly declared the raid his men were involved

in was "done professionally, that there was no harassment, no physical abuse and that 

the rules of engagement were followed."

This is clearly one of Col. Del Rosario's desperate acts to cover-up their flak. But 

there is no taking back the military's dirty hand exposed in the conduct of that 

operation. No amount of glossing over could hide these authorities' utter ignorance 

and insensitivity to children's needs and rights. 

Col. Del Rosario should be reminded of issuances and legislations on children such as 

RA 7610 "Special Protection of Filipino Children" and the international instrument 

Convention on the Rights of the Child. 

A certain Captain Torres admitted they conducted the operations based on the intelligence 

information they received that there were "transport of firearms in the area." But these 

men could not have missed out the fact that those they were aiming guns at were minors. 

Instead they went to the extent of physically inflicting harm upon them. 

Part of Col. Del Rosario's underhanded move to twist the facts was his insinuation that 

the camp organizers were trying to hide from the public their activities. 

The Summer Youth Camp was already on its fourth day when the raid occurred. Besides, it 

was in a private farm resort owned by former DOLE Regional Director Atty. Bartolome 

Amoguis, which is located just within the vicinity of the 73rd IBs camp in Malagos.

The 73rd IB which prides itself for "strong community relations" obviously failed to 

objectively utilize local information network when they did not even validate intelligence 

information. 

Clearly, the children are the ones held casualties of this big blunder. Such mechanical 

operation indicates failure of coordination between the AFP and the LGU. The huge amount 

siphoned from the government's budget purportedly for peace and order campaign fund went 

down the drain in this useless operation, and worst to the detriment of the poor, 

marginalized and excluded children. 

The incident indeed only manifests the extent of military?s rule in the city, proving 

further how the state forces can easily dispense with human rights under conditions 

warranted by a mere declaration of "State of Lawless Violence." 

Last Saturday's raid was clearly a local imprint of Bush's anti-terrorism campaign kowtowed 

to by GMA evident in her recently concluded US visit. Too bad, as in this incident, it is 

the children who bear the brunt the most. 

WE CALL FOR AN IMMEDIATE INVESTIGATION INTO THE INCIDENT TO BRING 

THE PERPETRATORS TO JUSTICE!

END EXPLOITATION AND OPPRESSION OF CHILDREN!

CHILD RIGHTS ADVOCATES UNITE AGAINST STATE VIOLENCE on CHILDREN! 

###

FOR REFERENCE:

Sr. Mary Abel Lucero, ma

Chairperson

KARAPATAN Task Force Women and Children

Ariel Casilao

Secretary General

KARAPATAN-Southern Mindanao Region

09204379903