The moral crisis and challenge of healing childhood abuse

By Fr. Shay Cullen

At no other time has the Philippines faced such a moral crisis and challenge to its integrity as a nation. Government officials, civil society and child protectors are challenged to take a stronger moral and social stand against the ever-spreading proliferation of crimes against children, especially over the internet. It is here, Unicef says, where 2 million Filipino children suffer abuse multiple times in their childhood. The sexual abuse of children in their homes is also a horrific crime, the extent of which is unfolding daily.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. addressed this issue in his State of the Nation Address (SONA). He did not propose clear solutions but highlighted the drastic, serious plight and situation of children and youth being seduced, brainwashed, abused, trafficked and driven to commit sexual and violent acts against other children.

He mentioned the tragic shooting at San Jose National High School in Tacloban City. The teenage shooters were most likely driven by the violence that they experienced online over the internet. The telecoms and the internet service providers are responsible for allowing these violent games of killing and maiming people and failing to block the child sexual abuse videos and images that drive 12- and 13-year-old boys to rape six-year-old girls.

The president is fielding 10,000 school counselor associates to public schools to help these children. He is not condemning them as young criminals as his predecessor did, who is an accused criminal himself sitting in a jail cell in the Netherlands.

However, so long as the telecom companies disregard and ignore the law mandating the installation of blocking software in their servers, the violent instigations by people like the Tate brothers and downloading of child abuse videos and images will continue. His solution is to treat the symptoms, but the root cause of the internet viral contamination of the youth is the telecoms themselves. Saving and protecting young people from perverse influences is the duty of the entire Filipino community, Marcos said.

The shootings in Tacloban by teenagers and the sexual abuse or rape of six- and seven-year-old girls by young boys have been influenced by the malign influence of people like Andrew and Tristan Tate. These brothers make millions of dollars by spreading hatred of females through their online sites that are available to all, especially youths. They promote and cultivate a shocking, violent culture of male dominance. They encourage youths to dominate girls and women, and they promote supermasculine abuse like sexual domination, preaching that males are the dominant gender and females are inferior and available for the pleasure and sexual gratification of males.

That is a toxic mix for teenagers who are only just discovering their male sexuality and masculinity. The Tates encourage total control over women and girls that drives young males to sexually abuse children and women instead of teaching teenage males that their role is to respect, honor, help, serve, protect and support a loving family and children, and not to dominate and abuse them. In the UK, the Tate brothers face a total of 59 criminal charges for rape, human trafficking and sexual exploitation. The UK government is seeking their extradition from the United States to stand trial.

Marcos called for a total response from a nationwide “whole-of-society effort” to protect children and youth from what he said were “pernicious influences,” like a toxic culture of hate, online violence and easily available pornography. These are the evil influences that corrupt our youth and propel them to commit acts of sexual abuse, harm and violence. Helping these abused and corrupted youth is what the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006, also known as Republic Act 9344, as amended by RA 10630, is designed for: to hold them accountable and correct their terrible mistakes by education, therapy, training in human rights and dignity, and teaching strong moral and spiritual values.

The law and its drafters understand the lack of discernment of young children committing crimes and shift the focus from penalizing and punishing minors to providing them with a restorative justice system where their rights are respected, and they are helped to overcome the negative influences heaped on them in a corrupt society. The House of Hope, or Bahay Pag-asa, was established by law to enable the law to be implemented. The Juvenile Justice and Welfare Council (JJWC) oversees the implementation of this justice framework across the country.

While the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has raised alarm over several local centers that still resemble prisons, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) launched a P275 million funding initiative to build new regional Bahay Pag-Asa (BPA) models engineered strictly as rehabilitative, homelike safe spaces. However, cities like Marikina and Parañaque are allegedly falling short. The CHR highlighted several poor conditions and child protection gaps within several of the Bahay Pag-asa facilities nationwide.

According to the CHR’s situational monitoring report, the specific issues needing immediate attention are changing the jail-like features of the so-called “Houses of Hope.” These facilities are like detention centers rather than restorative, safe environments, the CHR report said. There was evidence of physical violence, abuse and violent conduct occurring during a child’s initial apprehension.

It also mentioned staff misconduct (ill-treatment and lack of proper handling of the minors by facility personnel), substandard living conditions (poor overall quality of life, care, and basic nutrition within the shelters), restricted family contact (overly strict or heavily limited visitation rules that isolate children from their families), institutional bottlenecks (significant delays in the legal disposition of the minors’ cases), lack of basic services (highly limited access to crucial health care and formal education), and under-resourced facilities (severe shortages in specialized staff, local social workers, and daily operational resources).

The effect of these experiences on young people locked up in caged facilities, like dogs in an animal pound, would be sufficient to turn them hostile to authority and society from which they suffered mistreatment and hardship. They are likely to be influenced more by the malign influencers and the violent games and sex abuse over the internet by the money-making corporate corruptors of children and youth.

They can be turned to the good and to reject evil if given the chance to experience being respected, valued, encouraged, affirmed and listened to as people with dignity. If given the opportunity to learn their value as human beings and children of God, they do change, grow and thrive in a new life like that provided at the Preda Foundation. For over 53 years of providing transformational therapy and education in an open center, approximately over 1,500 children and youths now lead productive lives of value.

Email: shaycullen@gmail.com