The parents of the 10 minors arrested on August 31 have not seen their children for two days. They last saw their children on September 1 afternoon.
This was during the inquest proceedings at the Pasig City Hall, where police filed complaints for illegal assembly, direct assault, resisting arrest and physical injuries against eight of the children.
The minors were arrested in the dispersal of residents barricading against impending demolition in Floodway, Barangay Sta. Lucia, Pasig on August 31.
The children, two of them below the age of 15, are currently in the custody of the Pasig City Social Work Office in Bahay Aruga in Pinagbuhatan, Pasig City. One of the 10 is a 15-year old girl whose parents and brother were also arrested.
One 12-year old and one 13-year old were not charged, but they were still brought to Bahay Aruga and not released to their parents in the four times in four days that the parents showed up to gain custody of their children.
Exempt from criminal liability
According to paralegal workers and lawyers working on the case, at 8pm of August 31, eight of the 10 minors arrested were brought before the Women’s Desk of the Pasig Police Station, while their parents were not allowed to accompany the children and made to wait outside. The other two, according to the police, were brought to a hospital and then brought to Bahay Aruga.
“The youngest two, age 12 and 13, are exempt from criminal liability and should have been turned over to parents as soon as they showed up. The eight others should be released to family as well, upon agreement on diversion program,” said Atty. Maria Kristina Conti of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) NCR.
Atty. Conti referred to Section 7 of the Revised Rule on Children in Conflict with the Law.
Atty. Conti said that only a testimony of the relative attesting to the child’s age or even visual determination of the child’s age was enough for arresting authorities to turn over the children to their parents. But as per the said revised rule, the best evidence to prove the age of a child is an original or certified true copy of the certificate of live birth.
Some of the parents showed up in the evening of August 31 with documents, but were told not to interfere with the protocols of the social worker on police detail. They followed the children from the station to Rizal Medical Center and then the youth home, where the parents were turned away saying the children had already been told to sleep.
In the September 1 inquest proceedings, children relayed to prosecutor the bullying incidents experienced from other children in Bahay Aruga as well as their pleas to be allowed to go home.
“The social worker Archie Salmo who handles the case of the children was able to produce a document of initial findings affirming discernment of the eight minors in less than a day and in time for the inquest proceedings, so the children would be charged,” decried Atty. Conti.
A source from the Juvenile Justice Welfare Council said the determination of discernment of a child entails an entire study that the social worker is usually able to complete in seven days. In some cases and other practice, the children are already turned over to the parents while said study is being completed by the social worker.
In the revised rule, discernment is defined as “the capacity of the child at the time of the commission of the offense to understand the differences between right and wrong and the consequences of the wrongful act.”
Children kept away from parents
The parents proceeded to Bahay Aruga after the inquest proceedings of the children, all armed with birth or baptismal certificates, accompanied by Gabriela Womens’ Partylist Representative Emmi De Jesus. Only the house parent and security guard faced them and said they could not release the children because “they were told to keep them” and that they should bring barangay officials with them. The parents were only allowed outside the gate and were not even allowed to see or go near their children.
The parents made their way to Bahay Aruga again on September 2, and that time around they were turned away with the information that Archie Salmo was not around.
September 3, the parents trooped to Bahay Aruga, with Gabriela Womens’ Partylist Representative Arlene Brosas and Deparment of Social Welfare and Development Undersecretary Malou Turalde but they were also kept outside the gate as well.
Indiscriminate arrests
Through direct interviews with paralegal workers and lawyers, some of the arrested minors said they were only passing by the nearly one kilometer road. Part of the road was closed to traffic, with residents and passersby walking as police were arresting those beyond the barricade set up .
Other minors only went out on the street to see what was happening when dispersal broke out and were swept along the police arrest operations.
Should they remain detained by Monday, these minors would be kept from going to school.
Alleged bullying incidents inside Bahay Aruga
In the inquest proceedings and in direct interviews with paralegal workers and lawyers up to September 1, the minors complained of ‘bullying incidents’ inside Bahay Aruga.
One child’s shirt was taken by another who has been staying in Bahay Aruga when they arrived.
Some children complained of being brought to the comfort room, got slapped and kicked and locked inside the comfort room also by the old-timers in the center.
Rep. Brosas and DSWD Usec. Turalde were supposed to inquire on the reported ‘beating’ or ‘bullying’ incidents but they were not even allowed entry to the Bahay Aruga.
Bahay Aruga in Pasig City is known as a temporary shelter for abused, neglected and abandoned children.
