Retracing the journey of child soldiers and looking for the path to return them home: a report from southern Philippines

Abstract

This descriptive-qualitative study on child soldiers in Lanao provinces, located on Mindanao island in southern Philippines, looks into the factors that influenced children to join the armed struggle against the government. This study considers the influence on the children of their madrasah education, their recruitment process, the training they had undergone and the duties and responsibilities given to them by the militant group with which they were affiliated. Data were gathered through personal interviews and focus group discussions. Participants were selected through purposive and snowball sampling. This study found the educational background of participants to correlate with their entry into the armed struggle. The participation of child soldiers in armed struggles in southern Philippines is influenced by family and community values which recently have been reinforced through many militant groups being united by the professed objective to establish an Islamic state. To put an end to child soldier recruitment in the Philippines, it is recommended that the curricular offerings in the madrasah system be streamlined along the mission of Philippine education. Furthermore, other stakeholders like parents, teachers and religious leaders must be involved in the process of peace-building in the Philippines.