ILOILO CITY — Iloilo City will vie for the 2017 Presidential Award for Child-Friendly Municipalities and Cities (PACFMC) after garnering the highest score for the 2016 Seal of Child Local Friendly Governance in Western Visayas.
Merlyn Gison, focal person for child and youth welfare of the City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO), on Wednesday said that they are in discussion with the Regional Sub-committee for the Welfare of Children of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) regarding the nomination.
Gison said the good governance efforts of the city government and its partners paid off after winning the highest score in the regional validation conducted by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).
The annual validation seeks “to ensure that local government units follow their mandate that we are not only providing services to constituents but looking into the welfare and interests of children,” she said.
During the validation, DILG determines whether or not their programs are based on the category of children’s rights.
Iloilo City’s edge when compared with other local government units in the region include among others the utilization of its 1 percent fund for the programs, projects and activities of children, functional council for the protection of children down to the barangay level, available shelter facility for children undergoing rehabilitation and reformation program, continuous advocacy and influence barangays for functional Barangay Council for the Protection of Children and ensuring that rights of children in communities and schools are fulfilled by duty bearers.
In 2016, Iloilo City was rated 92 percent.
Lawyer Ferdinand Panes, Director of the Department of the Interior and Local Government in Iloilo City must be proud because it garnered the highest score among all recipient local governments in Western Visayas, sharing it with the town of Lambunao, which is a first-class municipality of Iloilo.
Panes said that the recipient LGUs will just be informed of the schedule of the conferment. (Perla Lena/PNA)
