The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) will forge on Tuesday (July 15) an agreement with the Department of Justice (DOJ) to establish a referral system that will help child victims of violent crimes under the custody of the agency’s Residential Care Facilities (RCFs) to receive monetary compensation.

“Child victims of violent crimes often carry invisible scars that are very difficult to heal. One of the ways to show support for their recovery is by providing monetary compensation that can cover their various expenses for treatment, therapy, legal fees, education, and basic needs,” DSWD spokesperson Asst. Secretary Irene Dumlao said on Monday (July 14).

According to the DSWD spokesperson, the administration of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. recognizes the urgency and necessity to assist child victims of violent crimes in their long-term healing and recovery.

Asst. Secretary Dumlao said the new partnership between the DSWD and the DOJ through its Bureau of Claims (BOC) will be beneficial to jumpstart the recovery and reintegration of child victim-survivors.

Under the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), the DSWD will assist and refer child-victims from the agency’s RCFs to the DOJ’s Victim Compensation Program (VCP).

The VCP aims to provide a certain amount of monetary compensation to victims of violent crimes with the objective of recompensing to a certain extent, the damage to the lives of those who suffered from lawlessness and grave injustice.

The DOJ-BOC, on the other hand, will evaluate and process the requests for claims by the DSWD, as well as endorse cases to the DSWD that fall outside the scope of Republic Act No. 7309 (An Act Creating a Board of Claims under the Department of Justice for Victims of Unjust Imprisonment or Detention and Victims of Violent Crimes and for other purposes).

The agreement covers child victims of rape, torture, enforced and involuntary disappearance, trafficking in persons, and online sexual abuse and exploitation (OSAEC), among others. # (AKDL)