Manila: Child warriors are fired at, or arrested and rescued by government soldiers in the war zone, especially after they were identified as members of Filipino-Muslim terror groups that have attacked a southern Philippines city since May 23, a spokesman said.
Soldiers have the right to defend themselves if they are attacked by teenage members of the 28-year-old Abu Sayyaf Group or the four-year-old Maute Group, which led several armed Filipino-Muslim terrorists in attacking Marawi City, Brigadier-General Restituto Padilla, a military spokesman said when asked about government’s protocol in handling children at war.
“When our soldiers’ lives are at risk, they take appropriate measures to defend themselves. That is allowable even by the Geneva Convention. So there’s no question about that,” Padilla explained, adding, “In the event [that] they [young fighters] bear arms and are involved in the fighting, there is nothing much that we can do. [This will] similarly [happen] to the hostages who are being forced [to side with the terrorists].”
However, Padilla said, “Every time we have an opportunity to rescue a child or an individual who is being forced into the fight, we will do that. Our troops are doing their best to avoid any casualty among these children that are being employed.”
“We continuously get disturbing narratives from [escaped residents] that children as well as hostages are being employed in the firefight,” said Padilla, adding he heard harrowing stories that civilian hostages were forced to carry ammunition, supplies, the wounded and the dead, and loot abandoned homes and stores.
He did not give details such as the number of child warriors killed and arrested in Marawi City’s war zone.
Filipino-Muslim terror groups, assisted by foreign extremists, initially captured 18 of 96 villages in Marawi City. They wanted to establish an Islamic state in the Philippines and in other parts of Southeast Asia’s Indonesia and Malaysia.
Terror snipers and a hundred extremists still man high buildings in Marawi. To their advantage are dozens of hostages (including a Catholic priest and church workers), 300 trapped civilians, and booby traps, which have hindered the forceful movement of government’s ground troops. The Government’s daily air strikes have pockmarked Marawi City.
President Rodrigo Duterte’s May 23 declaration of martial law in the south, which was approved by the Supreme Court last week, will lapse on July 22. The conflict has killed 507 people, including 379 extremists, 89 government forces, and 39 civilians. More than 400,000 residents, 200,000 from Marawi, have abandoned their homes.
