News Tidbits

2003 CHILD-FRIENDLY CITIES & MUNICIPALITIES

Posted: February 2004
By: May Baez Panganiban
E-mail: panganibanm@cpu-net.org.ph

Olongapo City once again bagged the top slot in the 2003 Search for Child-Friendly Municipalities and Cities for Highly Urbanized Cities. The awarding was held last January 27 inside Malacañan grounds. Relieving President Arroyo to hand the awards together with the secretaries of Department of Health (DOH), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), and undersecretary of Department of Justice (DOJ), was the Presidential Daughter In-Law, Angela Arroyo.

Other national winners were Tuguegarao City for the Component Cities category, Maitum Saranggani for the 1st to 3rd Class Municipalities category, and Dumingag, Zamboanga del Sur for the 4th to 6th Class Municipalities category. Tuguegarao and Dumingag were also proclaimed Hall of Famers.

The annual search was launched in November 1998 under the Executive Order No. 184 signed by the former President Joseph Estrada. It aims to support the growing nationwide effort to operationalize the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The search recognizes the role of local government units in promoting and protecting children’s right to survival, development, protection, and participation. Each national winner received cash prize of P1M to be used for child-friendly programs in their respective areas.

DSWD Secretary Corazon Soliman gave a short presentation on the State of the Filipino Children 2003 Report, followed by DOH Secretary Manuel Dayrit’s Launching of the Bright Child. Bright Child is a bundle of programs and services designed to focus on the developmental needs of the child and shall be implemented nationwide with the special emphasis on the nutritionally-depressed municipalities.