Message of Secretary Corazon Juliano-Soliman
Ako Para sa Bata Conference
December 5, 2011
SMX Convention Center, Mall of Asia, Pasay City

Our commitment is to promote and protect the rights and welfare of our children. In this conference, we remind ourselves of our responsibility to provide our children the necessary love and affection. We unify our resolve to create a safe and caring environment for the children which is your theme today.

The world recognizes that our children must be protected against all forms of abuses, exploitation, neglect and violence because it is a child’s right and it is our responsibility to ensure that we promote their rights and welfare and prevent the circumstances of child labor, pornography, trafficking, sexual abuse, prostitution, illegal recruitment, abandonment, maltreatment and bullying.

In 2002, we became part of a landmark treaty for the protection and development of children through the ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. We have already expressed our commitment to fulfil each duty as articulated in the Philippine Plan of Action for Children.

Today, we are tasked with realizing the vision of Child 21 or the Philippine National Strategic Framework for Plan Development for Children for the period of 2000 to 2025. Many of you were part of developing the road map design to rationalize all efforts of child protection and development efforts in the country.

While the Philippines is an early achiever to meet the 2015 target of the Millennium Development Goals in promoting Gender  equality, and empowering women from HIV/AIDS, protecting people from malaria and other diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability, we are still very far from our track as child welfare issues, extreme poverty, child mortality, maternal health and primary education remain to be our challenge amidst the fulfilment of the other MDGs.

One in four Filipinos still live in $1.25 a day. In 2009, based on the NSCB study, Filipinos needed P974 pesos to meet his/her monthly food needs and P1,403 pesos to stay out of poverty.

In the NHTS-PR we have identified 5.2 million families who live below the poverty line. Child poverty is an issue that the Aquino government continues to find ways to eradicate it.

Children who have been neglected and abandoned by their parents are still the highest reported incidence.

This year, 1,023 cases were reported to us. These do not count or cover all of the silent, unaccounted, not reported incidence of abandonment and child abuse.

However, lower than last year with 1,274 cases which maybe an encouraging report but as I said, I think maybe with the discussions we will be having today and tomorrow, we will be finding out that there are many unreported or underreported cases.

Physically abused and maltreated children rank second with  311 reported cases and here I think, I really hope that this conference can look into detection of abuse as the responsibility of each and everyone of us whether we are in the public sector, in the civil society sector, in the security sector. We need to put our head and hand and heart together to help in the early detection and how to rescue the children. I will be the first to admit that even my colleagues both at the local which are the MSWDO offices in all regions need help to upgrade their skills in dealing with detection. And then rescue, how to help the children recover from trauma, and I think this is much needed. As I have said, I will be the first to admit that even our department needs upgrading of skills in this regard.

With these overwhelming figures that I have mentioned, we at DSWD are more determined to fulfil our mandate of providing social protection to the poor, disadvantaged, unfortunate, disabled and vulnerable children, women and elderly.

The Aquino administration continues to realize that the vision and strategy of Child 21 and the National Plan of Action for Children updated earlier and the companion document which is the Comprehensive Program on Child Protection covering the period of 2006-2010 still need to make concrete headways for our children’s life. By these, we consistently utilize the rights-based approach centered on the 4th category of survival, protection, development and participation of children.

We come across the new approach from the former needs-based mechanisms to where the family and the community are and should be partners to the growth and development of the child. The strength of the family, we believe, is the first line of defense in nurturing a caring and protecting environment for children.

The DSWD leadership is consistent in our implementation of all the developmental programs and initiatives that are integral in the prevention, protection and rehabilitation of children in need by addressing the problems of the family.

For the Children in Conflict with the Law (CICL), the DSWD operates 60 Regional Rehabilitation Centers for Youth which are residential facilities where treatment and rehabilitation of CICLs are handled by a systems of a disciplinary team. The rehabilitation programs are designed to help CICL in their reintegration to the community. And I hope you can continue to lobby that we should not change the law because there are legislators and there are proposals already to bring down the age of discernment to 12 years old and another proposal to 9 years old.

So, we really need your help to prevent the change of age of discernment. As I always say we need to put to jail the syndicate not the children who are victimized. Part of our shorter program and in which the media consider as high in their agenda are the street children and street families. As I have said, it is a fact that we will be seeing many children again in the streets in addition to those who we see because carolling in the cars will again be rampant.

I would like to take this opportunity to tell you that we do have a Comprehensive Program for Street Children. Thank you. ###