THE SHARE A CHILD MOVEMENT, INC

The Republic Act 9344 known as the  Juvenile Justice Welfare Act of 2006 celebrated 10 years of its existence.  This law recognizes the right of children to assistance, including proper care and nutrition, and special protection from all forms of neglect, abuse, cruelty and exploitation, and other conditions prejudicial to their development.  It further defines a child at risk and a child in conflict with the law. This law also points to the  minimum age of criminal liability: A child fifteen (15) years of age or under at the time of the commission of the offense shall be exempt from criminal liability. Children are often used in drug trafficking nowadays because of this exemption.  Hence, some call for a lowering of this minimum age so that children committing heinous crimes can be put behind bars.  Child rights advocates insist that in these instances, children are victims too. The Philippines signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights o...

Human Trafficking: Modern Day Slavery Back in highschool, I remember reading the book called the Color Purple.  The novel is about a poor and uneducated 14-year old girl who suffers rape, beatings, maltreatment and all forms of abuse, and endures through all the hardships until she is reunited with family and loved ones at the end of the story.  These stories are based on true events, and sadly these still occur until this day. What is Human Trafficking? Human trafficking is modern-day slavery and involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act.  People on the ground like community organizer Elaine says human trafficking is a lucrative business, and that women and children are made vulnerable by poverty and gender discrimination.  In some areas in Cebu, it has become so bad that it was once considered a cottage industry.  Children are robbed of their youth, and end up as broken, empty shell...