DSWD gives hope to young inmates
by Roberto M. Cabardo
Cebu City (27 June 2005) --
Youth offenders serving time in national penitentiaries have a new home in the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) rehabilitation centers.
Through the legal intervention of DSWD, 10 children detained at the National Bilibid Prison (NBP) were transferred to the centers.
The project, an on-going project of DSWD and in partnership with the Philippine Jesuit Prison Service (PJPS), aims to give assistance to minors confined in national penitentiaries and in death row.
The DSWD's mandate includes protecting the rights of a child includes minors in jail and ensuring that they are segregated from adult detainees.
As of 2003, the program has already helped and provided legal and psychological services to 148 minors with eight minors coming from death row. The DSWD can provide assistance to children in conflict with the law. Those interested may inquire at the nearest DSWD office in their towns, cities, provinces, and regions in the country.
In Central Visayas, the DSWD Regional Field Office, headed by Director Teodulo R. Romo, Jr., oversees the operation of the Regional Rehabilitation Center for the youth located in Argao.
The head of the center, Mrs. Viviana G. Horvath, reported that the center is now home to almost a hundred children who committed crimes that include substance abuse, rape, theft, and few others related to crimes against passion and property.
Horvath, who deplores the way society looks at minor offenders, hopes that philanthropists and other charitable organizations will also help children in conflict with the law become renewed and productive citizens upon their re-integration in the community. "They are also victims, without most of us knowing it," she said.
Most of all, Horvath also appeals to parents and would-be parents to be aware of the duties and responsibilities they will have in raising a family. Lest, they forget that it is not only economic survival that they must value but also other aspects of parenthood and the relationship in a family. So there will be no more youth offenders in our midst. (PIA 7)
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