"We are kids, we are not involved in your political parties, I just want to go to school without being raped. So, can you please help us?"
These words were the desperate call for help of an 11-year-old girl to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. from the abuse of a Barangay Kagawad in Tinambac, Camarines Sur. Through a letter to the President, she detailed her and her peers' tragic experiences of rape, harassment, and abuse of government authority, imploring the Chief Executive to act so they can simply go to school in peace.
An 11-year-old should not have to beg to study without being exploited. To carry the weight of the abuse from the very people meant to protect her. She should not have to write about her story, for the world to see, before something serious is undertaken to ensure such crimes no longer go unpunished.
The Provincial Government of Camarines Sur and the Local Government Unit of Tinambac, particularly the Barangay Kagawad’s office, must be questioned: why did she have to? The 11-year-old's letter recounted the rapes of one of her peers by the Kagawad’s son and aide between November 2022 and February 2023. She mentioned the rape of another girl dating back to 2018, also at the hands of the Kagawad’s son. Only after eight years since the abuse presumably began was she able to ask for help. Her own community and local government failed to act, let alone provide her with sufficient resources to reach a contact person who could intervene.
That's not a minor lapse; it's systemic injustice caused by negligence and corruption. It's the failure of the government to care and serve its people that allowed children to suffer at the hands of its own official without notice for nearly a decade, forced into a silence of pain and trauma we could never understand.
"How will we read if we are being raped?" They learned how to say "rape" before being able to read fairytales and bedtime stories.
"How will we read if our own government people cut our electrical wire so we have no lights?" The darkness of their abuse was not enough to their perpetrators that they had to torment them under the desolation of their homes.
"How will we read if our kagawad cuts our balon wires so we have no water?" Their abusers did not feel satisfied with the ingrained taint of their perversion; they felt the need to deprive them of the very water that sustained their physical dignity.
An 11-year-old suffered this level of appalling cruelty at the hands of those sworn to protect her—her very own community leaders. What she was met with was not a commitment to the common good, but a plot to exploit the vulnerable—something that could've been easily prevented, if an attempt to do so was even made.
Mere children lived this unjust, miserable reality, denied their childhood far too early. Children who, despite the inhumanity they've been shown, were still able to say "please" in asking for the help they should've been given eight years ago.
We owe them rightful justice and peace. Answers must go beyond words; the national government must respond with serious and effective systemic reforms that will ensure every Filipino child's welfare. Furthermore, stricter oversight on local government units must be imposed to prevent further cases of overlooked or untended sexual abuse, child exploitation, and malfeasance in public office. Through these viable long-term solutions, 11-year-olds and children across the country will never fear to face the same story ever again.
So, please help them. Please walk with them. Together, for they are not alone.
Sincerely,
Ashraf Indanan
Written by Ashraf Indanan (The Pensieve), Insight PH
Ashraf Indanan (The Pensieve), Insight PH is a dedicated campus journalist and contributor. Their insightful writing sparks meaningful conversations and keeps the community informed.
