LGUs urged to put up youth rehab center

The Department of Social Welfare and Development in Central Visayas (DSWD-7) has called on the local government units in the region to establish a juvenile rehabilitation center for children in conflict with the law (CICL).

Child Welfare and Specialist Emma Patalinghug of DSWD-7 said that non-government organizations (NGOs) like Bidlisiw Foundation and Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI) are big help in rehabilitating juvenile delinquents, since Central Visayas lacks juvenile rehabilitation centers.

In the region, only Cebu City, Dumaguete City in Negros Oriental and Tagbilaran City in Bohol have centers for CICL.

Lawyer Cheryl Cabutihan, Child’s Rights Protection Unit project coordinator of Children’s Legal Bureau, said the government needs to address first the lack of juvenile centers in the Philippines before amending the Juvenile Justice Act of 2006, an act establishing a comprehensive juvenile justice and welfare system.

Rehabilitation facility for the youth provides care and healing treatment services to CICL who are below 18 years old.

The Bidlisiw Foundation, together with the Dolores Aboitiz Children’s Fund of RAFI, has been active in organizing child and family healing programs to put juvenile delinquents back on the right track.

According to RAFI Communications Officer Haidee Palapar, one of their clients Gio (not his real name), 15, dreams to become a security guard to help his family.

For now, he is focusing on activities under the recovery program of Bidlisiw Foundation, a Cebu-based social development NGO, along with other CICL and children who experienced corporal punishments and substance abuse, said Palapar.

Cabutihan said, “We need to check if we have complied with the international standards, including putting up the right juvenile centers. How could we say that the law (Juvenile Justice Act of 2006) did not work when we did not even give a chance for CICLs to be rehabilitated through juvenile centers.”

The call to amend the law to sentence children as young as 9-year-olds became louder after the spate of juvenile crimes, including a 16-year-old boy who allegedly killed his mother and half sister in Naga City, Cebu, said Cabutihan.