LAMITAN CITY, BASILAN, Philippines — They marched and brandished replicas of guns but later went home with toys, bags, bikes and scooters.
This was how hundreds of ‘children of war’, some siblings of former and slain combatants, celebrated the Festival of Love and Peace on Tuesday to draw them out from the culture of guns and violence.
Some 547 children coming from the towns of Ungkaya Pukan, Tipo-Tipo, and Tuburan were gathered here and marched downtown with their replic guns.
Once the children converged in open ground in Barangay Limook, however, they surrendered their toy weapons.
In exchange, they received toys, bags, cups, bicycles, and scooters.
Dr. Arlene Jawad Jumao-as of Save the Children of War Basilan collaborated with the military to help uproot the children from the culture of violence caused by years of conflict.
Jawad said the activity was a result of the post-trauma stress debriefing on a group of children from conflict areas.
“Most, if not all, of the children came out with their art showing guns, bombs, instead of schools, families and nature. The love of guns and violence,” Jumao-as said.
She said the children have already lost the hope for peace due to the culture of violence and guns they have developed from the conflict.
Jumao-as is herself a victim of conflict. When she was five years old, her father was killed in Basilan by a land mine planted by the Moro National Liberation Front.
“Hindi po ba tayo nagsasawa sa luha at dugo? Enough of war,” she said.
Jumao-as said she then collaborated with Lt. Col. Eliglen Villaflor, then commander of the 4th Special Forces Battalion here three years ago and started Save the Children of War Basilan to help find ways to change how the province's children see soldiers and guns.
Villaflor, now assigned to the national headquarters, shared the same impressions of the children from conflict areas.
He said the children were drawing kids with firearms shooting at planes dropping bombs on the community.
“There was no other impression but war,” Villaflor said.
He said they decided to work and independently sought assistance from their friends to change the children’s perception of guns through toys.
Villaflor said among those who helped him was Magdalo party-list Rep. Gary Alejano, who provided more than 100 bikes and scooters.
“We don’t want to nurture this culture of violence,” Villaflor said, admitting, however, that conflict in Basilan continues to pose a big challenge to that.
But a senior ground commander here noted many things have changed about the children's perception of soldiers.
Col. Cirilo Donato, commander of the 104th Infantry Brigade, said many of the children of war are back in school.
“We want to make sure they will no longer want guns when they grow up. We rescued the children from wanting guns and hope the children will be resilient from conflict because of education,” Donato said.