This American returned to the Philippines to liberate abused street children

MANILA, Philippines – Margie (not her real name), then six years and 11 months old, was the eldest of four children of a street food vendor and her unemployed husband. She lived with her grandparents since her parents could not support all their children.

Margie did not do well in school and her teachers described her as a slow learner. So Margie dropped out of school and spent most of her days on the streets.

One day, Margie showed her aunt her blood-stained panties…

She was immediately brought to the Child Protection Unit (CPU) at the Philippine General Hospital, a privately funded center within the PGH compound dedicated to protecting child abuse victims in the Philippines. There, Margie underwent complete evaluation and during the forensic interview, it was found that she had been sexually abused by her grandfather. At the CPU, all the members of the team involved in the case met to discuss what was needed to be done to keep her safe, healthy and in school.

Her grandfather went to jail.

Today, Margie is 13 years old and is in the fifth grade. Her performance in school has remarkably improved and she is now enrolled in a regular class. Her mother supports Margie and her siblings with a tricycle route the tricycle, a gift from the PCU.

Margie is but one of an estimated one million cases of child abuse each year in the Philippines. Only about 7,000 cases are reported yearly. Hers was a typical case that gave David Bradley sleepless nights many years ago when he arrived in the Philippines.

David Bradley was an idealistic Fulbright scholar from Washington, DC when he stepped off a plane at the Manila International Airport in 1977, lured to the islands by the romantic epic of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, whose saga unfolded in the Philippines. Today, he owns the influential Washington DC-based Atlantic Media Company, which publishes several prominent news magazines in the US, including Atlantic Monthly, National Journal and The Government Executive. All in all, he has six titles and an online media company. He hosts dinners for the likes of President Barack Obama’s chief adviser Rahm Emanuel and the King and Queen of Jordan. He is said to be the third most influential man in Washington DC.

But aside from his family, his real love is the Philippines. He fell in love with the Philippines (“I don’t think I can love a country more than I love the Philippines,” he says) and proved his devotion by traveling to the country more regularly than even US-based Filipinos have in the last 32 years. Not just to see the sights, but to see a mission fulfilled saving abused Filipino children from a wasted existence.

Helping the Child Protection Network: Irene Martel-Francisco and Atty. Katrina Legarda, (seated) Lizzy Razon and Mons Romulo-Tantoco during a media briefing at Makati Shangri-La

In a teleconference with some members of Philippine media from his home in DC (just a few days after he presided over a press conference with President Noynoy Aquino in New York), Bradley recalled that during one of his trips to Manila in the ‘90s, he got a call from Father Donelan, a Jesuit he has known since his Fulbright days. Donelan asked if he could help fund a home for street children. Bradley not only gave of his treasure, he also gave his time to the project. He found out, for one, that even if the home for street kids had only a few beds, there would be more beds than children wanting to sleep there.

“I found out that once a child has been on the streets for over six months, it is hard to get them back,” he said. He wanted a more holistic approach to the problem and in 1997, the Child Protection Unit (PGH-CPU) at the PGH was born with the support of the CityBridge Foundation and the University of the Philippines-Manila. Bradley is the founding chairman.

He said he realized that, though “the Philippines loves its children very much, the Philippines can also be a dangerous place for children.”

Since then, Bradley has been quietly but generously funding the CPU. In fact, I had never heard about his work in the Philippines before, and Bradley says it is by choice. He believes charity is most genuine when it does not seek a reward.

Now he goes to sleep at night with the joy of knowing that he has changed Manila’s social landscape from just 90 abused children seen at the PGH in 1996, over 100 children seek help at the CPU-PGH each month now.

Poverty is not always the culprit, says Bradley, and CPU legal consultant Katrina Legarda agrees.

“Do you know there are also a lot of unreported child and sexual abuse cases in Forbes Park?” she said matter-of-factly. When we looked at her with raised eyebrows, she repeated. “Yes, in Forbes Park. But the mothers are just so afraid of reporting them.”

“Generally, while highest reporting rate comes from ages 10 to 15, this does not mean that younger children are less likely to be physically abused. Children from age zero to six years do not readily report abuse due to their limited communication skills,” she reveals.

Many victims are children of absentee mothers who are OFWs. The culprits are usually known by the victims he could be a father, a stepfather, an uncle, a brother. Some are victims of gang rape.

Dr. Bernadette Madrid, executive director of the Child Protection Network (into which the CPU has evolved), says the work with abused children and families “goes beyond responding to a one-event crisis and much of the challenge is in stabilizing and strengthening the child’s family situation.”

Citing a study, she says adults with documented histories of childhood abuse and/or neglect have lower levels of education, employment, earnings and fewer assets compared to adults who have not been abused.

CPU data shows that a majority of those seen at CPUs all over the country (there are now a total of 31 nationwide) are sexually abused girls. There is emerging research, however, that boys may be as vulnerable but do not report the abuse because there is more social stigma for males who do. Of the girls, a lot have mothers who are overseas workers. Left home, they are abused by, believe it or not, their male relatives.

How many abused children will form the backbone of the Philippines tomorrow?

“We do not have to go far in looking for reasons for the situation of the Philippines today,” Madrid points out, and rightly so. For who was it who said “The child is the father of the man”?

The Goliath of child abuse now bullying society is being toppled, slowly but surely, by many Davids.

Bradley, among them.

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The other officers of the Child Protection Network Foundation are retired Justice Ameurfina Melencio-Herrera, Philippine Tatler publisher Irene Martel Francisco, Dr. Beth Melchor of the Far Eastern University, British Ambassador Stephen Lillie, fashion consultant and writer Mia Borromeo, Karina Constantino-David, banker George Go, civic activist Lizzy Razon, businessman Jun Sy, Philippine STAR columnist Mons Romulo-Tantoco and businessman and musician Johnny Velasquez.

For inquiries, call 526-8418, 554-8400 local 2535, e-mail katlegarda@childprotectionnetwork.org or visit www.childprotection.org.ph.