DAVAO CITY — City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio has recently created a technical working group (TWG) tasked to draft the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of City Ordinance No. 0729-19, also known as “An Ordinance Establishing a Transformative Program for Children at Risk”.
Duterte signed Executive Order (E.O.) 67 on December 17, 2020, which detailed the composition of the TWG.
The city mayor, along with the heads or representatives of the Sangguniang Panlungsod Committee on Peace and Public Safety and Committee on Women, Children and Family Relations; Davao City Police Office; Liga ng mga Barangay; City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO); Council for the Welfare of Children; and Davao City Special Office for Children’s Concern shall comprise the TWG.
E.O. 67 also states that the CSWDO shall serve as the Secretariat for the Board. The Secretariat is tasked to handle all administrative and/or secretarial-related activities and to also ensure all Board meetings are effectively organized and recorded.
City Ordinance No. 0729-19 is aimed to address Article XV, Section 3 (2) of the 1987 Philippine Constitution, which provides special protection to children ” from all forms of neglect, abuse, cruelty, exploitation, and other conditions prejudicial to their development.”
Section 4 of the ordinance mandates the city government of Davao, through the City Social Services and Development Office (currently known as CSWDO), to provide programs such as parent-child education to enhance parents’ capacity to raise their children in a healthy, loving, and nurturing environment that is also consistent with the child’s normal growth and development.
The ordinance also mandates that community-based centers for children at risk (CAR), under the program of Children at Risk Transformative Community-Based Center (CARTC), shall be established to provide immediate, appropriate, and holistic response to CAR cases.-CIO
