DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 22 June 2026) — For years, public conversations about the country’s anti-illegal drug campaign largely revolved around suspects, arrests, crime statistics, and law enforcement. Far less visible were the children left behind.
On Thursday, June 18, advocates sought to bring those children to the center of the conversation through the launch of a publication featuring artworks by children that carry stories of being affected by drug-related violence.
Launched by Amaya Lay (ALAY) Mindanao, Inc. as part of a training on Child-Friendly and Rights-Based Drug Education, the book Voices Behind the Brush: Stories of Hope and Resilience, documents experiences often absent from dominant narratives surrounding illegal drugs.
Edgar Diares, Executive Director of ALAY Mindanao expressed his wish that these children’s stories “create a discourse,” “a venue for discussion,” and, eventually, “intervention.”
Diares said he hopes stakeholders, the government, and non-government organizations “makabasa niining (to be able to read these) stories of pain for what it is, traumatic as it is.”
“Sana mag-create siya og discussion ug discourse (Hopefully it will create discussion and discourse),” he continued.
The children behind the statistics
In introducing the publication, Diares said discussions about illegal drugs are often framed through a law-enforcement lens that primarily criminalizes people, labeling them as threats.
[Ang] gitawag nato nga law enforcement nga lens … nagatan-aw sa mga tao, kriminal … mga adik, mga rapist (What we call a law enforcement lens sees people as criminals, drug addicts, rapists),” he said.
Diares further explained how he hopes for a shift in lens, from a law enforcement-based perspective, towards a human rights and child rights-oriented one: “[Unta] mahimo siya’g public health [concern] — usa ka health concern (Hopefully this concern becomes a public health concern).”
In this light, rather than lending itself to that “law enforcement lens,” the book instead focuses on how the lives of children have been shaped by anti-drug operations, parental incarceration, community stigma, neglect, and other vulnerabilities.
In the book’s introduction, the Project Team described the featured children from Davao City as among those “affected by anti-illegal drug campaigns, children at risk, and those in conflict with the law,” and those who have experienced “different levels of trauma” and “struggle to articulate complex feelings caused by fear, stigma and abuse.”
“By embracing visual arts, we provide these young lives with more than a creative outlet, we give them a voice, a means of healing, and a platform to shape change,” the publication states.
“Painting transforms silence into dialogue, trauma (into) understanding, and isolation into connection, proving that every child’s story deserves to be seen and heard,” it continued.
One artwork belongs to “Kano,” a child repeatedly labeled a troublemaker and thief without recognition of the abuse, abandonment, trauma, and neglect that shaped his circumstances.
“Society quickly judges a child’s actions but rarely tries to understand the trauma and neglect behind them,” the accompanying story reads.
“At seven years old, Kano was first caught stealing a small candy in a mall,” it said. “Many only saw a child doing something wrong, but no one asked why.”
For the organizers, such experiences illustrate how children are frequently judged through circumstances beyond their control.
Reclaiming narratives through art
The artworks in the collection attempt to explain and understand the children’s realities through color, imagery, and symbolism.
The paintings in Voices Behind the Brush were produced during visual-art sessions and workshops involving children and youth project participants.
According to the organizers, art became a means for children to express emotions that were often difficult to articulate directly.
“Painting unlocks emotions they struggle to verbalize,” the publication’s foreword states. “It is translating pain, fear, and hope into vibrant colors and shapes.”
“Nanggawas didtoa ang ilahang mga past experience, nakaisurya sila, and mostly man gyud atung mga bata is, dili dyud sila muisurya (Their past experiences came out [through the process]. They were able to talk about them. Most of the children really don’t open up easily),” Crystal Belmores, one of the social workers who facilitated the art sessions with the children, told MindaNews.
“Pag gisturyahan nimo sila, (mag-)oo lang, mag-yes or no nga sagot (When you talk to them, they would usually just answer ‘yes’ or ‘no.’),” Belmores added, explaining how children often revealed experiences through their artwork that did not initially emerge during ordinary conversations.
“Based sa ilahang artwork man gyud … mas naging expressive sila kasi sila lang man maka-explain sa ilang drawing (But through their artwork, they became more expressive because they were the only ones who could explain what their drawings meant),”
The project team said visual art functions doubly as a therapeutic tool and also as a form of advocacy.
“Art therapy does more than heal wounds: it empowers these children to reclaim their narratives,” the publication states. “Their canvases, raw and unfiltered, transform into advocacy tools.”
The paintings tackle themes ranging from abuse and exploitation to identity, safety, belonging, and hope.
Another young artist — “FM” — wrote that children “have the right to be safe, online and offline” and deserve to “grow up free from exploitation.”
From punishment to rights
The launch also coincided with a broader effort by advocates to promote what they describe as a child-friendly and rights-based approach to drug education.
Speakers argued that drug-related issues should not be viewed solely through punishment and criminalization, but also through public health, mental health, and child-protection perspectives.
Alfonso Balansag Jr. of the Commission on Human Rights defined drug use, first and foremost, as “a health problem,” that demands we improve our “mindset and framework of understanding the issue.”
“Dili lang law enforcement ang solution (Law enforcement is not the only solution),” Balansag said.
“Rehabilitation, not incarceration,” Diares added.
ALAY Mindanao Project Coordinator Mario Vargas said one of the challenges remains the persistence of stigma toward people affected by drug-related issues.
“Stigma, actually, usually, coming from outside — even the family creates stigma,” Vargas said. “Because of our understanding of the issue.”
“Versus ‘yong tawag natin na (what we call a) punitive, understanding of the issue, we need to address this, with compassion, non-judgmental,” he continued.
He added that addressing children’s needs requires more than awareness campaigns. It also requires accessible psychosocial services, mental-health support, and sustained community interventions.
Among the initiatives their advocacy calls for, according to Vargas, is “access… Accessible and affordable mental health services for our children and their families.” He stressed the need for a community-based approach that aims to care for, not only the children, but also those immediately surrounding them.
Likewise, the paintings and the stories they carry are not merely records of individual trauma, but invitations for communities to respond.
“We need amplifiers,” Vargas said. “The stories of our children need to be told to broader communities.”
Listening to children
Browsing through paintings and personal narratives displayed during the launch, the organizers emphasized that the publications were ultimately about rendering the children’s experiences visible.
The goal, they said, is not simply to document suffering but to challenge communities to see affected children as rights-holders rather than extensions of the labels attached to adults around them.
Behind every painting, every story, and every statistic is a child seeking what many of the featured narratives repeatedly ask for: to be seen, heard, understood, and given the chance to heal. (Bea Gatmaytan / MindaNews)
