National Children’s Month with Salome Siaton, Regional Director, Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE-7) at PRO7 Camp Sergio Osmeña Sr., Cebu City on November 16, 2021. | Photo screen grabbed from PRO-7 FB live
CEBU CITY, Phililppines — Policemen in Central Visayas continue to assure children that they have someone to call to when they will need help.
Knowing that someone would come to help them when they would need help would already be a crucial step for children to protect themselves from possible abuses that might happen anywhere including inside their homes, said Police Lieutenant Colonel Maria Aurora Rayos, information officer of the Police Regional Office (PRO-7).
Rayos said that this would be a way to empower children and build relationship with them so that they could protect themselves from any form of violence against them due to their vulnerabilities as children.
Rayos said this as the Philippine National Police (PNP) including the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) celebrate the “National Children’s Month” this month.
According to the PNP in a statement, that they have recorded 19,652 cases of violence against children in 2020 and 5,464 cases from January to May 2021.
The PNP said that in 2021 and in early 2021, majority of the victims of violence were mostly female, whose ages ranged from 10 to 17 years old.
In line with the National Children’s Month celebration, the PNP have also launched PROJECT VIBES (VIrtual Bisita Eskwela-I Am Strong), a project tailor-fit to cater for the needs of the children under the new normal.
“It is designed so the PNP personnel could conduct information drive and strong awareness campaign against all forms of abuses against children by visiting the children in the barangay or their respective household, without prejudice to IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force) protocols,” the PNP said in a statement.
For her part, Rayos said that it was indeed a big challenge for them to help these children during this pandemic as they had to follow health protocols because children were also vulnerable to the virus.
She also said that even inside their respective houses, children would also be prone to possible abuses, with their possible perpetrators coming from inside their homes.
Rayos, however, could not provide data of cases of abuse of children in Central Visayas.
She said that minors would be hesitant to seek help if a family member would be the perpetrator or if abuses happen inside their homes.
So the PRO-7’s thrust to help these children is to focus on empowering these minors through information dissemination, and to help instill in their minds that the police are always with them.
“Huyang sila nga kung naay krimen nga mahitabo hadlukon lang sila. During pandemic, mao gyud na ang atoang pinakadako nga hagit kay ang mga bata, unlike kung naa sila sa school, pwede sila musumbong sa ilang teacher,” she said.
(They are vulnerable if there are crimes committed against them they will just be threatened. During the pandemic, that is one of our greatest challenge because the child, unlike if they are in school, they can tell their teacher about what was done to them.)
“But og sulod sa ilang panimalay, unya ang perpetrator naa sulod sa panimalay, mao na nga wa sila kahibalo asa sila musumbong…I involve nato ang ataong kabataan para mainform sila nga naa atoang kapulisan [naa ra],” Rayos said.
(But if inside the house and the perpetrator is inside the house, then that is when they would not know who to tell about the wrong that is done to them…we will involve our children so that they will be informed that our policemen are there for them.)
She also said that today, children would not be afraid of policemen, especially if they were in uniform, as compared to the previous years.
“Sa una managan palayo, karon managan paduol. Tungod siguro nga comfortable na ang atoang kabataan karon nga muduol,” she said to explain this development.
(Before, they will run away [from the policemen], today, they will run nearer [to policemen]. This is, perhaps, because the children are more comfortable to approach them [policemen].)
As for Project Vibes, the PRO-7 brought the program to the Consolacion Police Station in Consolacion town and the Lapu-Lapu City Police Office last November 16, 19 and 26.
Activities were conducted and lectures about the children’s rights, good manners, and right conduct were also imparted.
This year’s theme for the National Children’s Month is “A New Normal na Walang Iwanan: Karapatan ng Bawat Bata Ating Tutukan!”
READ: National Children’s Month: Cause for celebration or worry?