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Summary: US Rep. Christopher J. Smith will lead a congressional team to the Philippines in the second week of January next year to find government-to-government ways to help resolve human rights issues involving Filipino street children jailed with adult criminals.
WASHINGTON - US Rep. Christopher J. Smith will lead a congressional team to the Philippines in the second week of January next year to find government-to-government ways to help resolve human rights issues involving Filipino street children jailed with adult criminals. Smith (R, New Jersey), chairman of the House subcommittee on Africa, global human rights and international operations under the committee on international relations, will be joined by subcommittee member Rep. Joseph R. Pitts (R, Pennsylvania) and Rep. Trent Franks (R, Arizona) of the House judiciary committee. The US solons will meet with Philippine lawmakers to get updates on the juvenile justice bill and a strong cyber anti-child pornography bill that advocate Fr. Shay Cullen plans to propose. Smith discussed the planned January trip in a closed-door meeting with Lord David Alton, Jubilee Campaign human rights co-founder, and other advocates who testified at a hearing of the subcommittee on Tuesday. During the testimonies of two officials of the State Department and four international human rights advocates, Smith also expressed interest in Amerasians - abandoned children of American servicemen - who are among the street children in the Philippines. A long-time human rights champion, Smith was a former House veterans committee chairman who helped in the passage of benefits for Filipino war veterans in 2003. He presided over Tuesday's hearing on the global problem of human rights abuses on street children in the Philippines, Brazil, Uganda and Zimbabwe. "There's no doubt that we're looking at how we can help our friends in the Philippine government and the Philippine people, our close friends, to insure that the Philippine children, their young girls and boys, are not trafficked or not compelled or forced into prostitution, or not in the streets being exploited by those gangs," he said after the hearing. He added: "We're looking at ways of encouraging, carrots and sticks, if you will, good solid programs like Father Cullen's programs, but also to see what we can do on a government-to-government level to encourage greater focus on this issue," he added. Fr. Cullen founded the People's Recovery Empowerment Development Assistance Foundation which has helped in the rehabilitation of 150 to 200 street children. He testified at the hearing Tuesday. Fr. Cullen, a missionary in Olongapo, Zambales, testified that US foreign assistance should be "scrutinized and monitored to insure that aid is not cornered by politicians" and "fake NGOs." Quoting Newsweek estimate, Fr. Cullen said there are 20,000 children "who see the inside of a jail in a year." He said based on figures of the Philippine government, there are at least 3,700 children currently in jail. "These are street children who have been detained in overcrowded Philippine jails without trial," he said.