TWO social workers were assigned to separately handle the needs of both the child victim and the child suspect of a recent shooting incident in a billiard hall in barangay Pasil, Cebu City.
Jaybee Binghay, spokesperson of the Department of Social Welfare and Development in Central Visayas (DSWD-7), said they would handle the children despite an initial agreement with the Cebu City Social Welfare Office.
Under the previous arrangement, the city social welfare office will care for the victim while the DSWD-7 will handle the child suspect in the shooting.
“Both are Filipino children who need assistance,” Binghay told Cebu Daily News.
Gemma Umpad, social worker of the DSWD-7 Crisis Intervention Unit (CIU), is assigned to case manage the child victim. Provincial social worker Vilma Cosibo will handle the child suspect.
About P5,000 in cash aid to cover medicine expenses was handed last Thursday by Umpad to the victim’s grandmother, Mercedes Abejo, when the social worker visited them at the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC).
DSWD is now “pooling” funds from different sources for further financial assistance to the victim who is still in the hospital, Binghay added.
The office is considering asking funds from Rep. Tomas Osmeña of Cebu City’s south district.
Osmeña’s wife, Councilor Margot Osmeña, used to chair a task force for children in special circumstances.
The child suspect is now under custody of the child’s grandmother for “safekeeping” and is expected to miss school season this year, Binghay said. Correspondent Jessa Chrisna Marie J. Agua