She’s not going home to Southern Leyte yet.
The 16-year-old girl who was detained for failing to pay her bills in a resort, will have to stay in Cebu for the meantime to complete her “reformation,” a government social worker said yesterday.
According to Cristina Recto, the municipal social welfare officer of Sogod town in Southern Leyte where the girl comes from, said “J” needs to be sent to an institution for children in conflict with the law where she can be “changed for the better.”
Recto said Sogod town has no facility or an intervention program to address J’s needs.
“She needs institution-based reformation, not community-based,” she said.
Recto revealed that J’s father brought her home to Sogod when she first got entangled in a shoplifting incident in August, but the girl managed to “escape” and return to Cebu.
For now, Recto said she sees the institutionalization of J as the best option she and her family have, unless her family decides otherwise.
Recto said a dialogue with J’s father, as well as her grandparents, will take place today at the Sogod social welfare office.
“We will discuss the welfare of the child and whatever decision we will be making should be in her best interest,” said Recto.
Recto said she will then make an assessment based on the dialogue and make recommendations.
She said it is for the best that the minor also undergo psychological examination as soon as possible.
Recto said she has made arrangements with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) 7, whose field office is in Cebu City, to look for a place where J can stay in the meantime.
Recto received the letter sent by the Office of the Vice Governor of Cebu over the weekend asking Sogod to take custody of the girl and facilitate her “diversion” program as required by law for children in conflict with the law.
However, Recto said the family dialogue is the most the local government unit can do.
When “J” was brought to the Asturias police by resort staff after she couldn’t pay for staying 3 days in a P5,000-a-day room alone, the teenager said she would just “wait for my parents”.
Cebu Vice Gov. Magpale assured that her office is closely working with the Southern Leyte Provincial Government to make sure intervention will continue once the girl is turned over to her hometown.
The 16-year old girl, tagged by Netizens as the “most beautiful shoplifter in Cebu” in posts of her Facebook photos that went viral, spent the weekend in a privately-run shelter in Cebu after inquest proceedings at the Cebu Provincial Prosecutor’s Office last Friday.
Social workers in Cebu earlier certified that “J” acted with discernment during her stay in the resort in Asturias town.
This means that despite her minor age, the teenager can be criminally charged and made to stand trial if the case is filed in court.
Magpale said her office is looking for another shelter for the girl to stay.
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