BY JENNIE L. ILUSTRE

WASHINGTON. 9/13/2005 – An Irish missionary said he will ask the 109th US Congress on Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila) "to suspend aid to the Philippines until Filipino children currently jailed together with adult criminals get justice" and provided rehabilitation.

In an interview before a press conference here on Monday, Fr. Shay Cullen said, "I will ask the US Congress to link foreign aid to development and human rights."

"These are street children who have been detained in overcrowded jails for years without trial," he said.

Quoting Newsweek estimate, he said there are 20,000 children "who see the inside of a jail in a year." He added Philippine government figure gives 3,700 children currently in jail.

Cullen is the founder of the People’s Recovery Empowerment Development Assistance Foundation Inc. He is based in Olongapo, Zambales.

He will testify at a hearing before the House subcommittee on Africa, global human rights and international operations under the committee on international relations.

During their four-day stay here, he and advocate Lord David Alton will also meet with senators and congressmen and top officials of the State Department.

Alton is also testifying at the hearing. He is founding chairman of the United Kingdom’s All-Party Committee on Street Children and co-founder of the international human rights group Jubilee Campaign. He will talk about the street children in Brazil’s slums.

CNN aired a documentary on the subject last month, triggering international attention. It will return to the Philippines to do a follow-up on what happened to the boy Edwin featured in its newscast.

At the press conference at the National Press Building, Father Cullen said, "we have good working relations with the Philippine government."

He cited the Supreme Court and "many who are good-hearted," including judges, who have no choice but to apply the law.

Cullen said he has been lobbying for nine years to have the Philippine Congress consider the juvenile justice bill as urgent.

"It’s a great shame they’re only acting on it this week because they’ve been embarrassed internationally," he told Malaya.

The Philippine Senate justice committee rushed its committee report on the juvenile justice bill on Sept. 10, three days before Cullen’s testimony in the US Congress.

The office of majority leader Francis Pangilinan, who sponsored the bill when he was justice committee chair, said Senate Bill 1402 "addresses the slow handling of youth in conflict with the law and minors who are locked up in adult jails along with hardened criminals."

"There is growing interest, locally and internationally, over the plight of these juvenile offenders because, as I have also said before, jail is no place for a child," the senator was quoted as saying.