MANILA (AFP) — Children in the Philippines are willingly joining communist or Muslim separatist guerrilla groups to escape grinding poverty, a UNICEF commissioned study released Wednesday said.
The Ibon Foundation, which carried out the study, found fear of the military, poverty and limited social services were pushing some children to join the communist New People's Army (NPA) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
"The child respondents were all conscious of their poverty and the limited social services and options available to them," the report said.
"This volunteerism is premised on the credibility these groups have in the communities, a credibility which seems to be genuine and does not merely derive from sheer military control."
The study involved interviews with 430 people including children, women, local non-government organisations, officials and insurgents in conflict-affected areas.
UNICEF local representative Nicholas Alipui said unlike in some war-torn African nations, there was no forced recruitment of children into armed groups, but that "children should have no place in armed conflict at all, even if they want to join."
Armand Alamon, a consultant with the Ibon Foundation, said both the NPA and the MILF used youths below the age of 18 in non-combat roles such as couriers, spies, cooks and to run errands.
The United Nations has listed the Philippines as one of the countries which has "children associated with armed groups... as combatants or in non-military roles," said Forossgh Foyouzat, the chief of the child protection section of the local UNICEF office.
"In the past, it was mainly the rebel groups that had child recruits but there were now reports of similar recruitment by pro-government militia forces," she said.
The report also said military forces were deliberately attacking civilians, including women and children, as part of their counter-insurgency campaign.
Ibon research head Jose Africa said there was "conscious targeting by the military of the civilians."
Alipui said the study was "not as balanced and completely unbiased" as he would like as it made no attempt to get the military's side.
But he said it was still an important report as it allowed the children's voices to be heard.
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