Tuguegarao City – The Department of Social Welfare and Development Field Office 02 (DSWD FO2) through the leadership of Regional Director, Fernando R. De Villa Jr., rallied support for the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) and Residential Care Facilities for Children in Conflict with the Law (CICL) during the 111th Regular business meeting of the Social Development Council (SDC) on September 30, 2020.
Office of the Assistant Regional Director for Operations (OARDO), ARDO Lucia Alan presented the status of the implementation of the 4Ps program in Fuga Island, a Geographically Isolated and Disadvantaged Area (GIDA) – sitio of Aparri, Cagayan where there are 68 active household beneficiaries under set 9 and 66 eligible households for inclusion under set 10. She presented that since the sitio is only accessible through a 5 to 8-hour boat transportation from the town center, some basic services are not readily accessible to the families which would pose a problem with their compliance to the program’s conditionalities.
Some supply side gaps identified are the high elementary and high school drop-out rates; high pregnancy rate among minors and early marriages; inaccurate basic information recording; and no access to basic facilities on communication, health, secondary education and evacuation centers.
Through the Regional SDC, the provincial and municipal Local Government Units (LGUs) are urged to establish health and school facilities that would cater to 4Ps beneficiaries in Fuga island as well as the upgrading of school and health facilities in other GIDA areas of the region.
On the other hand, DSWD chairs the Regional Juvenile Justice Welfare Council (RJJWC) of which, one of the responsibilities would be to ensure that provincial LGUs and highly urbanized cities comply with the mandates of RA 10630 which includes the establishment of a gender-responsive homecare facility for CICL or the “Bahay Pag-Asa.”
Currently, the provinces of Nueva Vizcaya, Quirino, Batanes and Isabela – one in Cauayan City and another for the independent component city of Santiago – have begun with the planning and identification of areas to be used or converted into Bahay Pag-asa. However, plans have been put on hold in the meantime while the country faces the Covid pandemic.
The Bahay Pag-Asa is a residential care facility established, funded and managed by LGUs and licensed and/or accredited non-government organizations for CICL who are awaiting court disposition of their cases. On the other hand, the Youth Rehabilitation Center, such as the Cagayan Valley – Regional Rehabilitation Center for Youth, is a residential care facility for CICL on suspended sentence whereby residents are cared under a structured therapeutic environment, with the end view of reintegrating them into their families and communities as socially-functioning and productive individuals.
In response, the SDC committed to do the following: To come up with a resolution reiterating provinces to establish/put up their respective Bahay Pag-Asa to reinforce the provisions of RA 9344 or the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act as ammended and to aggressively advocate to all LGUs and duty-bearers to fully implement the provisions of the said law which inlcludes the formulation and development of a Comprehensive Local Juvenile Intervention Plan and the utilization of the standard protocol in managing cases of Children at Risk (CAR) and CICL.