Abus using child warriors to behead hostages – Lorenzana

MANILA, Philippines - The Abu Sayyaf group is using child warriors to behead hostages, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said yesterday.

Lorenzana and Sen. Richard Gordon also confirmed the recruitment of child warriors by the Maute group, Abu Sayyaf and other lawless elements in Mindanao as they warned that this is a violation of International Humanitarian Law.

“We see some teenagers who are already holding guns and being used by Maute and other lawless elements in Mindanao. Kasama na ang mga Abu Sayyaf group (This includes the Abu Sayyaf) in Basilan and Sulu,” Lorenzana told reporters at the International Humanitarian Law Day celebration at the Department of Foreign Affairs. 

“They are really using children. In fact, those who are beheading their victims are just teenagers,” he said in Filipino.

According to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, armed groups should not, under any circumstance, recruit or use in hostilities anyone under the age of 18. 

The conditions of these children’s detention and sharing facilities with adults also violate the government’s obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which the Philippines ratified in 1990.

Gordon said children should not be recruited.