“Project Safe” to protect children from crimes

CEBU, Philippines — The Cebu City government is rolling out soon “Project Safe”, a program aims to train city and barangay personnel how to prevent crimes against children.

The initiative is an offshoot of the report from the International Justice Mission (IJM) that ranked Cebu City as the fourth highly-urbanized city in the country with the highest number of online sexual abuse and exploitation of children (OSAEC) cases

IJM is a non-government organization that specializes in combating OSAEC and is working with local law enforcement in rescuing victims and prosecuting those behind the illegal activity.

The report has alarmed the Cebu City Commission for the Welfare and Protection of Children (CCCWPC).

“It’s really a big challenge kay karon, we are No. 4 based on IJM’s data… Na-alarm gyud ta sa report sa IJM,” said CCWPC executive director Carmelita Helen Francisco over Sugboanon channel.

A report from the Anti-Money Laundering Council in  April 2023 also show that while a greater proportion of OSAEC-related remittances originated from foreign sources, data also shows that there were several remittance transactions made across the different regions in the country.

“The province of Cavite had the highest number of remittances sent domestically, accounting for 59.40% of total domestic transactions. This is followed by Cebu, Pampanga, Negros Occidental, and the City of Caloocan.”

In terms of value, Cebu is also one of the biggest in the overall OSAEC-related remittances.

Cebu was also identified as one of the top 4 recipient-locations in term of the number and value of transactions and the leading destination of OSAEC-related proceeds that were carried out domestically.

Francisco said the risk of becoming an OSAEC victim is also because more children are now exposed to cellular phone and social media use and often times the perpetrators are just within the family.

“Dili sayon pagdetermine sa usa ka panimalay nga naay biktima sa OSAEC because the victims are within the family ug ang nangabuso sulod ra sad sa pamilya,” Francisco admits.

With this, CCCWPC is initiating “Project Safe” to improve their capability to combat OSAEC.

Aside from CCCWPC, personnel from the Department of Social Welfare and Services, the Cebu City Women’s Commission, and the barangay’s gender and development (GAD) focals will also be trained in the program. After the training, Project Safe can already be implemented next year.

CCCWPC has started conducting education campaign in schools to ensure that students are aware of the dangers of OSAEC and to prevent cases of bullying in line with the National Children’s Month this November.

In another development, the Department of Social Welfare and Services’ (DSWS) Child and Youth Welfare Unit also called on parents and barangay officials to safeguard the needs and welfare of their children to help deter them from committing crimes themselves.

DSWS’s Child and Youth Welfare Unit emphasized that the presence of children at risk (CAR) and children in conflict with the law (CICL) could be attributed to several factors, including the parents’ lack of care and the lack of diversion programs for kids in the barangay level.

“Magbuhat nana sila og dautan kay nasugdan naman sa ilang pagkabata. Kung makita nila ang ilang ginikanan nga gabuhat og krimen, gibuhat sad na nila,” said Nicole Ivanka Princess Ebcas, DSWS CYWU head.

Ebcas noted that some of their clients are above the poverty line but are emotionally deprived of love and care from their parents.

“Kasagaran ana naay ubang bata moingon nga okay ra unta ilang pamilya, pero wala na feel sa bata ang gugma, ang pag-atiman sa ginikanan,” Ebcas added.

The DSWS provides services for CARs and CICLs such as psychosocial intervention, discernment assessment, and family intervention, but the said department stressed that family and barangay participation are still important in ensuring that these children are given the right care.

“Si barangay ang pinaka makatabang gyud sa bata kay tungod naa man sa ilang jurisdiction. Dili mahitabo nga mahimo silang CAR ug CICL, if ang barangay mag-create og program para sa ilang mga bata,” she added.

The Barangay Council for the Protection of Children (BCPC) can also be of help in coming up with strategies to help kids in the village level while the Sanggunian Kabataan (SK) are encouraged to implement meaningful programs that will discourage their constituents from doing criminal activities. –/FPL (FREEMAN)