Lapu-Lapu children assured of services

CEBU, Philippines – Lapu-Lapu City is making sure that the children and youth are given support for their development, aside from education and sports, according to Mayor Paz Radaza.

Radaza stressed that the city has been focusing on handing out basic services for the youth.

Since the inauguration of the Stimulation and Therapeutic Activity Center last May, Radaza said that the operation is in full blast and at least 454 children with disabilities have been served by the facility.

The Lapu-Lapu City Police through its Police Community Relations has been conducting seminars on gangsterism in public schools, as well as on cyberpornography issues.

The campaign that calls to stop cybersex and prostitution started in March which is the National Women's Month.

"Our social workers have rescued 18 children from pornography," Radaza said during her recent State of Children's Report. The children are now under the custody of the city's Home Care and parents were placed under counseling, she added.

She said a total of 112 children who are either abused, abandoned, neglected or in conflict with law, were also rescued.

The City Social Welfare and Development have established partnership with other civil society groups and is actively upholding the rights of the child, Radaza said.

Nightclubs and bars are regularly monitored and inspected by the Local Council for Protection of Children.

According to Radaza, this is to ensure that no minors are allowed to enter and to be at risk in these establishments.

"We shall make sure that the children, who are the most vulnerable sector of the society, are better protected," Radaza said. The State of the Chidren's Report this year centered with the theme "Bata kasali ka, Ikaw ay mahalaga."

The celebration of National Children's Month falls every October. This was signed into law and declared by the former president Fidel V. Ramos in September 1993.