Capitol to deploy container vans as holding centers for minors

The Cebu Provincial Social Welfare Development Office (PSWDO) will turn over 20-footer refurbished container vans this year to local government units (LGU) in the province to be used as holding centers and serving facilities for children in conflict with the law (CICL).

PSWDO head Marivic Garces said the office came up with this project to have a place to hold underage offenders since it is against the law if they will be placed behind bars.

“There are other LGUs nga duna'y issues nga ang ilahang areas wala'y holding centers. That's why mapugos sila nga ang minor offender ibutang sa selda or prisohan which is against the law, especially when the child is below 10 and should be under the supervision of the parents,” Garces said.

The office will provide one container van for each district that is interested to take part in the pilot program.

The fifth district will be given two holding centers since Garces considered the area to have high incidents of CICLs.

With the province's P4.2 million budget allocation for the program, these container vans have rooms, a bathroom, and an office.

The LGUs will be the ones to identify where these facilities will be located and will designate people to man the facility.

“There should be a social worker, women's desk officer para sa mga babaye, and police,” Garces added.

Garces also advised that these facilities should be constructed on flat areas to make it safe from typhoons.

Unlike the previous years, Garces also aims to change people's habit of bringing minor offenders directly to her office.

Minors with extraordinary cases will be directly brought to her staff in charge of the program so they can conduct conferences and find out the background of the child.

For this year, the PSWDO also plans to begin construction for the “Bahay Pag-asa” project with a budget of P20 million.

The P10 million will be coming from the provincial coffers while the rest was granted by the Juvenile Justice Welfare Council (JJWC).

“There is already a standardized design coming from the central office of the JJWC and then dili na pwede mo-deviated from these standard design because later on we will be aiming for the accreditation of the center,” said Garces.

She said they are aiming for a Level 3 accreditation and assures more improvements after the accreditation of the center this 2018.

“We will be occupying 2,000 sqm lots. This project, Bahay Pag-asa, are for CILC clients nga duna'y mga ongoing cases sa court,” Garces said.

Additionally, the office also plans to construct a livelihood center worth P1.5 million in Sogod as a display base of products from the different LGUs in the province.

According to Garces, they chose the Municipality of Sogod since the LGU has an available lot that can be used.

“The location is also strategic, specially ibutang man nato ang goods and products,” she added.

Another project for this year is the construction of centers for persons with disabilities. The office plans to provide one PWD center for northern areas and another one for the southern areas, worth P3 million each.

Garces also said that the establishment of two technicalvocational livelihood centers worth P2 million each for Badian and Tuburan is also part of Cebu Governor Hilario Davide III's agenda for this year.