Street child grows up to become hero in Cebu

CEBU, Philippines —  In 1981, 13-year-old Bill Felisan was apprehended for eating food left unattended at a stall. He had thought they were someone's leftovers. He was turned over to a facility where street children from different parts of Cebu City were gathered.

This was not Bill's first act of mischief, nor was it his first brush with law enforcers. The boy hustled to survive, meeting arriving ships to ask passengers to drop coins into the sea so he could dive for it. He sifted through trash to sell what he could for food. He stole unattended slippers to resell. When he was hungry, he would steal corn and other crops to eat.

Bill was used to running away from the police. He was caught with other street children and marooned on an island during city events. But the boy from the pier would go behind the guard's back to swim to the city and take part in the festivities.

“We did not know that what we were doing was wrong. We committed many violations at the pier because our enemies were the law enforcers. They would catch us,” Bill recalled.

In this latest facility, Bill thought his time was finally up. There were many of them from the streets, the market and the pier. The children had been gathered through Operation Fishnet, a Cebu City initiative to take juvenile delinquents off the streets.

Bill was instead handed a ticket to a new life in what turned out to be the Community Scouts Youth Guidance Center, which was part of an experimental project for minors in conflict with the law.

Under the project, apprehended street children were sent to the facility for rehabilitation instead of jail. Cases were not filed against them, and they were required to go to school. Bill was among the first batch of minors received by the center.

The administrator briefed the children about the program. Bill knew this was his chance. He had to follow house rules. Like other residents, he also had the responsibility of washing soft drink bottles.

“The center's program was for us to have a family. They thought of us as family. We would go to school. We even had parents and siblings waiting for us. We went home to the center after our classes, and we went home to a real house,” he said.

When he learned they could go to school, he fetched his two younger siblings to stay with him at the center.

Bill, who had stopped at fifth grade, picked up from where he left off. During his sophomore year in high school, he took a placement exam that allowed him to go straight to college. He applied for and got a scholarship, which allowed him to complete a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Technology, major in Electronics.

Bill’s life of juvenile mischief then came full circle. The boy who had spent his life running away from men in uniform ended up becoming a policeman. He continued with the Community Scouts and gave the same care for the incoming minors as was once done for him.

While he did not know it at that time, Bill became part of a diversion program for children in conflict with the law long before the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act (RA 9344), which institutionalized the rehabilitative process, was even passed.

When deliberations for RA 9344 were finally conducted in Congress, Bill became one of the resource persons who fought for the inclusion of diversion programs into the legislation.

Now 50, a husband, and a father, and better known as Kuya Bill, SPO4 Felisan has made it his life's work to help transform minors who tread the path he once walked.

After the Community Scouts – now a UNICEF-supported facility – moved out of its old location in 2007 to a four-storey building in Duljo, Cebu, SPO4 Felisan decided to bring the program to schools and the streets. The program has also been adopted by municipalities and every year, he conducts it in different areas.

As a member of Cebu City's Police Community Relations, he speaks on juveniles and women, and in different fora on the life-changing effects of diversion programs. As vice-president of the multi-sectoral Men Opposed to Violence Against Children Everywhere, he has advocated for diversion as a response to juvenile delinquency.  He has won awards for his contributions to juvenile justice.

SPO4 Felisan has used his story to give children once like him a second chance.  

“There are others, especially those who already have tattoos, they say 'I am already muddied, big brother. There is no hope for me.' But I challenge them. I tell them what I was like before. I tell them, this uniform was the one that used to chase me, but now, I'm wearing it,” Felisan said earnestly. “The uniform that I hated before is the one that God used to save me.”

As part of UNICEF Philippines’ 70th year anniversary, the UN’s child rights agency honors modern-day heroes committed to bringing a brighter future for the next generation of Filipinos. — Jennee Grace U. Rubrico