By JOANNE RAE M. RAMIREZ
Chary Mercado, a mother of three children from her heart and thousands others, wakes up every day with a purpose and mission — to protect children from abuse and help them find a brighter future.
There’s this old saying that goes, the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.
Chary Mercado’s hands not only rock cradles in orphanages (now called Child Caring Agencies because their wards are not usually orphans but abandoned), they also put into paper (comic books, particularly) stories about child abuse that victims can easily relate to, and thus seek help for.
Chary is the author of the four-part comic book, which illustrates, quite literally, the scourge of sexual abuse on children in the country. Marina Cruz and Rodel Tapaya of Istorya Studios published the comics. The stories were illustrated by professionals.
“This has to be required reading in public schools because it’s a big problem,” Marina told Chary when she volunteered to publish the comics in full color. Marina launched a thousand copies of the book at the recent Art Fair.
“It’s basically all the different kinds of abuse in four different stories,” points out Chary, who took out all the production costs from her own pocket. “The campaign came about because pedophilia really spiked during the pandemic as some people were stuck in their houses with no livelihood, and there were just children there. They had a camera, gadgets. It’s as simple as sending pictures or videos of your children. For example, a picture of your children wearing certain outfits cost P500, or videos of your children dancing cost P1,000.”
The Philippines became the “live-stream” capital of this child sex abuse content, according to Chary.
“It became a cottage industry during the pandemic. The United Nations did a study in 2016 before the pandemic and then the statistics were already very high.” This was confirmed to Chary by someone in the International Justice Mission, an international organization and a non-government organization that fights child and women trafficking.
Since Chary, an alumna of Woodrose and the Ateneo de Manila University, was in a writing group, she decided to use the power of the pen to do something about the burgeoning problem, told from the point of view of a child.
“I said, ‘Why don’t I try to write stories about abuse’?” she shares. She was familiar with many case files of abuse since she had been with the Intercountry Placement Committee of the Philippines, which matches children from the Philippines with couples from abroad, and is about to begin a second term with the committee. “So, I felt I have read so many cases of these situations.”
“I have one story called Ang Bal-bal. It is a mythical creature in a certain tribe that I researched and the child thinks that his uncle is a bal-bal because whenever his uncle visits, he gets attacked in the night. Another story that I got when we were doing the adoption matching is a story of a certain neighborhood. There’s a white rich guy who moved in and he invites all the boys in town to play in his house like PS4 or Nintendo and then he gives some food or candies outside his house and then they come in and then it becomes their clubhouse and eventually this is when the abuse happens. Those two cases are not online abuse, the first one is a relative and the other one was a guy in the neighborhood.”
The other story is about a man who discovers his younger sister wants to be a princess. She met some guy online who was pretending to be a prince and who pretends that the castle in Disneyland is his house. He shows her the carriage in Disneyland and because the girl is so young, she easily believes it.
The fourth story is a case of a boy who feels like he’s a ninja. He patrols his neighborhood, then he sees in his neighbor’s house that the mom is videotaping the two daughters dancing and he wonders, “Is this a party, but why do the daughters cry while they’re dancing?” It looks weird to him and then he tells his mom about it. His mom is the one who brings it to the authorities and reports the case.
“The first four published ones are different scenarios where a person is in a position of trust or familiarity, like your neighbors, or somebody in the village, and then you realize there’s more to it than that because, in most cases of abuse, it is somebody they know. It’s not usually a stranger,” points out Chary.
Chary’s other concern is that when the parents facilitate the abuse, they are not going to buy the comic book for their children.
“So, the point of entry would have to be the school or NGOs and in the community centers, not with the Department of Education yet. I’m starting to do it on a school-by-school basis because I ran it through a group of teachers in Tondo. They told me that they know what was happening. So they were very thankful because they said they have never had material like this before,” says Chary.
Aside from her advocacy against sexual abuse on children, Chary is also hands-on in matching parents with abandoned children.
After she and her now husband Lito got married, they made a firm decision to adopt children as part of their journey as a couple.
“We would say that our first option is to adopt kids instead of to have biological kids, because I just feel that there are so many kids out there who need homes. It’s quite fortunate that I didn’t have to convince him because I don’t think anyone should be convinced to take these big steps, like adoption,” says the former Chary de Guzman. Chary and Lito are the proud parents of three adopted children.
“It was the concern and the awareness that there are so many kids who need families and then after a while, it was also the awareness that there are so many kids with irresponsible parents,” she shares.
“Why do I care so much? Well, I’m already in that community of lawyers, NGO workers, and social workers who are dealing with children in orphanages who have been rescued. Of course, there’s always that notion that it could have been one of my own children. I mean, my children were adopted from unfortunate circumstances and if I had not taken them, they could easily have been one of them in this abusive situation. So, I really feel great concern for Filipino children who are not cared for,” shares Chary.
And as if being a mom, a writer, and an advocate against child abuse and adoption aren’t enough to keep her hands full, Chary has also taken on another advocacy.
Chary started a group called “Happy to Help.” It is a livelihood literacy and disaster relief. “I used to do a lot of work at the Makati City Jail. I used to teach the inmates English,” Chary recalls. “I never got scared because they were very nice and funny. We were all learning.”
Chary wakes up every day with a purpose, and her every purpose began with a “Yes.”
Her motto in life? “Just say ‘Yes’!”
“Like, if somebody asks you, ‘Are you willing to do this?’ Yes, sure! ‘Can you write a speech on this?’ Yes, of course,” she smiles.
After all, the hands that rocked the divine cradle over two thousand years ago also began her journey with a “Yes!”
Happy Mother’s Day to all who rock the cradle!
