Child-friendly award a collective effort

City took the grand slam award for the Most Child-Friendly City through government’s collective effort and not with the help of former mayor and President Rodrigo Duterte, an official said.

On Thursday’s iSpeak Forum at the Davao City Hall conference room, City Social Services and Development Office (CSSDO) chief Maria Luisa Bermudo disproved allegations that the former mayor could be the reason for the city’s newly-earned title that was awarded by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) on Monday.

“It is a fruit of the collective effort of all the government departments, civil society organizations, and all 182 barangays,” she said.

“It’s already a landmark. It has become the basis of the other cities and municipalities to create their own children welfare act,” she added.

Lawyer Lawrence Bantiding, assistant city administrator for operations and Bermudo, chief of the Davao City Social Services and Development Office accepted the city’s Child-Friendly Municipalities and Cities (PACFMC) for Highly Urbanized City Category award.

Davao was awarded the same in 1998, 1999, 2013, and 2014.

In a statement, Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio said the award was a proof that the programs and projects intended for the protection of the rights and welfare of the children of the city are yielding positive results.

“Congratulations to the people of Davao and the officials of the city government who made Davao City a safe and enjoyable place for children to live. Let us keep responding to the pressing needs of our children to be educated, fed, clothed, and provided with a safe home,” Duterte-Carpio said. CCC