Manila: The number of child soldiers in the Philippines could further increase, amid reports the Daesh group is recruiting young Filipino-Muslims in the south, officials said on Tuesday.

The Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development (PLCPD) said this could be averted if the government continues to pursue the peace process by engaging in talks with various rebel groups.

“Mindanao in the south has many armed groups. If the ISIS [Daesh] has recruited Filipino-Muslims there, I’m sure these would include children,” Romeo Dongeto, Executive Director of (PLCPD), which has taken the cudgel for children caught between warring parties in conflict areas, told Gulf News.

“During political conflict children die, or they lose families, health facilities, schools, and are vulnerable to sexual abuse and recruitment by warring parties,” said Dongeto, adding, “Children seized by government security forces in war zones are woefully rehabilitated — they become assets of drug lords and gun runners, or part of military apparatus as spies and cooks.”

“The peace process is one option to spare our children from war,” said Congressman Teddy Baguilat, adding the non-passage of a proposed law to implement the 2014 political settlement between the Philippine government and the 38-year old Moro Islamic Liberation Front (Milf rebels) “should not discourage the government and peace advocates from pushing for peace and the legislation of peace settlements”.

At the same, 61 PLCP members from the lower house of Congress, and five senators at the upper house of Congress “will work harder for full implementation of three Philippine laws that protect children and women from being recruited as war soldiers,” said Baguilat, adding the remedy is “doable to save Filipino children in war zones”.

According to Unicef, from 2011 to 2012, an estimated 80 Filipino children became soldiers of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army (CPP-NPA); the Moro National Liberation Front; the Milf rebels; and the Al Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf Group. as well as pro-government paramilitaries nationwide.

The UN children’s agency also said about 30,000 to 50,000 children are displaced by violence and conflict annually in the southern Philippines alone.

“Getting the right data on children soldiers in the Philippines is challenging,” Baguilat admitted, hinting the number of child soldiers could breach “more than 100”.

About 3.5 million people have been displaced by political conflict in the south since 2000, said the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC).

About 250,000 children are fighting wars worldwide, 40 per cent of whom are girls, other rights sources said, adding they are active in 14 counties including Burma, Philippines, and Thailand in Southeast Asia; and also in Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, DR Congo, India, Iraq, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Yemen.