DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 20 Oct) – Members of ACT for Children Alliance appealed to the barangays here to implement some provisions of the Children’s Welfare Code that were not yet realized since it was passed into law since 1994.
Councilor Antoinette G. Principe-Castrodes read a statement of ACT for Children Alliance during the privilege hour on Tuesday that highlighted the importance of the code (full ordinance title: “Comprehensive Children and Family Support System in Davao City”) as an instrument to educate the parents on child rearing, including ways how to discipline the children and shape them into becoming good leaders of the nation.
The statement was signed by 91 children coming from different areas of the city who joined the Children Summit October 17 at the Lingap Pangkabataan, Catalunan Pequeno, this city.
The code stated that it will be “the policy of the City Government to ensure that the programs aimed at the achievement of goals for the survival, protection, participation, and development must be given high priority; it will work for the respect for the role of the family in providing for children and will support the efforts of parents, and other child care and development workers.”
Principe-Castrodes said most of the parents are not even aware of such legislation that guarantees children’s protection.
The group cited 12 provisions of the code that were not implemented, which include provisions on bullying inside the schools and communities; violent riots; teenagers getting access to hotels, lodges, and clubs; child labor; street children; physical and sexual abuses against children; prostitution; pornography; lack of health facilities that will take in the children from poor families; children engaged in illegal drug syndicate; poverty; and lack of a mobilized Barangay Council for the Protection of Children (BCPC).
“Nagatuo kami nga dako gyud ang mamahimong kabag-ohan sa kinabuhi namong mga bata kung tiunay ug komprehensibong mapatuman ang tanang probisyon sa Davao City Children’s Welfare Code (We believe there will be vast improvements of the lives of children if the implementation of this law is honest and there’s a comprehensive implementations of its al provisions) ,” the statement read.
The group also cited seven provisions which they said have been properly implemented. These included 9 p.m. curfew for minors, access to services to health centers, prohibition on the selling of cigarettes and alcoholic drinks to children, membership to organizations in barangays or inside the schools, feeding program, registration of infants, and securing the children during armed conflicts.
“The biggest effect of this code would be the decreased number of minors who are out on the streets starting 9 p.m.. On the other hand, the implementation of the curfew and other services are not implemented in all barangays,” the group added.
