Kinship custody arrangement for orphans in Leyte

In this Nov. 21, 2013, photo, Shylyny Therese Negru, 15, holds her youngest brother, Rainier Aaron Dacuno, 3, as they sit in a relative’s home in the town of Burauen, Leyte. The children are among an unknown number of children in the eastern Philippines who lost their parents to the massive Nov. 8 storm. AP PHOTO/DAVID GUTTENFELDER

TACLOBAN CITY—On the day Supertyphoon “Yolanda” battered this city, 7-year-old Cesar Ponce lost his parents and two younger siblings.

Cesar’s father Giovanni, his mother Marichu and two younger siblings, Princess, 5, and Aljur, 2, did not survive when their three-story house in Pampago District on the coast collapsed from Yolanda’s strong winds and sea surges on Nov. 8.

Cesar, who also lost a cousin and an aunt, was separated from his mother. He was later found hanging on to a piece of wood by a village councilor.

Asked if he missed his family, the boy said yes in a faint voice. During the interview at his grandmother’s house, he remained lying on a foam that served as their bed.

Cesar is one of the scores of children in Eastern Visayas who were orphaned by Yolanda. They are also called “unaccompanied” minors by the United Nations.

“He is considered to be an orphan although he still has some relatives who will take care of him. What they are doing to him is just kinship custody,” explained Arvin Jay Cordeta, a social worker from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

Cesar is now under the care of his paternal grandmother Winefreda, 59, and his father’s brother Eric, a policeman.

“He is my nephew and I am close to him. Ever since, I don’t just consider him a nephew but my own son,” Eric told the Inquirer.

As of Jan. 7, the DSWD regional office had monitored 105 minors whose parents perished in the typhoon. Of this number, 30 are under DSWD care at the Reception and Study Center for Children in Palo town, Leyte. The rest are with their relatives.

The children under DSWD custody have relatives whose capacity to take care of them are being evaluated, Cordeta said.

Among them are the three Tañola siblings, aged 9 to 11 years. They lost their parents who had chosen to remain in their house in Barangay (village) San Roque, also in Palo. The parents had brought their children to a relative before Yolanda struck, Cordeta said.

Social Welfare Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman said orphaned children were being monitored because they could become victims of trafficking or subjected to some abuses or exploitation.

Soliman added that relatives should register orphans under their care in the DSWD so they could be given assistance, including psychosocial counseling.

“We cannot just take these children away from their relatives. They have just lost their parents and it would be a double trauma for them if we took them away from their living relatives,” Cordeta pointed out.

He, however, said DSWD personnel were making visits to these children to conduct stress debriefing. With the help of the United Nations Children’s Fund, they also gave the children some relief goods, including hygiene kits.

RELATED STORIES:

Caretakers of ‘Yolanda’ orphans told to register

Orphans speak of supertyphoon’s horrors