MANILA, Philippines?Paper cutouts of the phrase ?Welcome to our home? and pastel walls greet guests at the small reception area, where they are met by an energetic house staff wearing wide smiles.

There are no signs that indicate the facility is, in fact, a holding center for Caloocan City minors, aged 18 years and below, who have been accused of various crimes.

Built only this year by the city government, the Yakap-Bata Holding Center on the second floor of the Sangguniang Panglunsod building within the premises of City Hall tries to stay true to its name, serving as a temporary shelter for what the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) prefers to call ?children who are in conflict with the law? (CICFL).

Yakap-Bata is a Filipino term meaning ?embrace or hug the child.?

The words used to apply to these children were carefully chosen by the DSWD in line with the state?s policy of recognizing the right of every child accused in a crime to be treated with dignity?as expressed in Republic Act 9344 or the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006.

This policy takes into account that the accused are minors who should eventually be reintegrated into mainstream society.

Rowena Drilon, the center?s head, told Inquirer that Yakap-Bata is not a detention cell, and therefore, its residents are not treated as detainees but as children apprehended because of problems with the law.

?We really want the center to be like a home to them, and the people working here, like their second family,? she said.

From a tiny cubicle in one corner of the City Social Welfare and Development (CSWD) office in the compound, Yakap-Bata?s new, if modest, facility consists of two huge dormitory-type rooms, one for males and the other for females. There is also a session hall where they all meet up for various structured activities.

The shelter currently houses 23 boys and four girls, with cases ranging from simple theft and robbery-holdup to the more serious crime of murder. Nine children are below 15 years old.

Five minors attend trials at the family courts of the Caloocan City Regional Trial Court, assisted by social workers; 13 others are still waiting for their cases to be raffled off.

Under the law, they are free of any criminal liability for their acts, but they undergo behavioral intervention activities with the city?s social workers.

On a regular day, the children are up at 7 a.m. for morning prayers and exercises. They help out in the cooking chores, take their breakfast at 8 a.m. and are later tasked to clean the house, bathe and wash their clothes.

?For these children, structured activities are in order the entire day,? said Drilon.

The Yakap-Bata children are taught values education and livelihood skills in the afternoon sessions with social workers as part of the behavioral intervention activities.

Drilon said the facility was funded and built by the city government in accordance with a provision of Republic Act 9344 for a ?home environment? different from confinement in city jails reserved for adult offenders. Such a facility should provide rehabilitation and training programs for wayward minors.

Yakap-Bata, however, is only considered a holding center and not yet quite like the rehabilitation center envisioned in the law. Drilon said it employs 15 house-parents, a psychologist, a social worker, and five administrative staff, but is not yet fully-equipped to be able to provide a rehabilitation program for the minors they have under their wing. This is the only facility for troubled minors the city can afford for now.

As a halfway house, Drilon said the center provides immediate home care to the apprehended child who is showered with care, counseling, a nonformal education and even trained in livelihood skills. The children are later brought to nongovernment organizations like Preda Foundation, Cradle, and Erda Foundation that can provide them restorative care.

Challenges

Drilon said maintaining such a facility also poses a lot of challenges to the CSWD.

Since its residents are children with behavioral and authority problems, security issues often mar the homey environment at Yakap-Bata.

Drilon said several minors have attempted to escape several times by destroying the wired windows of the three toilets in the facility. In some instances, the center staff also found sharp objects under the bunk beds of minors who were members of teen gangs.

Just last month, the male residents staged a noise barrage inside their dormitory to get the attention of house parents working on their shift that day. When Drilon opened the door, the kids pushed her back and went straight towards the door. Only three kids were returned to Yakap-Bata; the rest were reported to the courts for further action.

Noting that the facility was more like a home than a jail, the CSWD initially did not want to call in police. But Drilon said they have now put in a request for a police detail to provide protection for both the children and the staff.

Despite the challenges, Drilon said they have not strayed from their aim of reintegrating the children back into the mainstream. The center, in fact, is proud of several former residents who have been released back to their families and who now use their free time as volunteer counselors to the ones they have left behind and the new ones that come in.

Drilon said the success story of a former resident who has reintegrated with the outside world is the best motivation for them to believe that there is hope for children who have fallen by the wayside.